I’m doing a contract position for a special project at the School of Medicine. It’s amazing to see what a full-fledged city this campus is, with its own police force.
I just read several profiles in succession where the person described himself in the first line as “down to Earth”. Do they need to say they are in their profiles? How substantive of a comment can it be? It seems to me that this would be something only another person could say about someone, who isn’t that person’s mother, the way people sometimes say “told I’m good looking.” Not sure what down to Earth means, anyway. Good center of gravity? Sober? Not a dreamer? Easy going? Un-heavenly? Jaded? Bitter?
The largest Coast Guard base in the world was on Goveror’s Island, right off the tip of Manhattan. We lived there for 3.5 years when my Dad got transferred back to the States from Catalonia, Spain.
We lived on the top floor of the largest building, which had two story apartments without paying rent with a view of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Twin Towers RENT FREE.
I had a friend in the same building who I would visit once in a while and I noticed that their identically designed apartment looked different every time I went over. While OCD was not yet coined, it appeared his mother had a compulsion to move furniture around to make her feel like she had new living arrangements, I have often thought in hindsight.
Once in a while I get inspired to do some things around my own home, but I try to make it functional and easy to maintain. I think there is something to be said for the best arrangement of furniture for the space one is allotted, which includes outdoor furniture.
The two major projects that I’ve undertaken recently was a new gazebo for the backyard that is like Fort Knox compared to the covers I had over my hot tub area, and putting a futon in my home office to give me a true guest room accommodation for two people potentially.
The futon I got from my daughter’s boyfriend has multiple purposes. Besides having a completely private bedroom for guests, if I wish to take a break upstairs, without going to the main living area to lay down and nap, I can now do so in my home office without messing up my bedroom. I can comfortably recline and watch “TV” on one of my computers in there (because cable is so Decade Zero). It also provides a comfortable place for my Yorkies to nap and still be near me while I’m working at my desk, and yet somehow it’s not overcrowding the office as I had suspected a queen size mattress would, especially when it is inclined like a couch.
The Gazebo took a lot of work and isn’t completely finished to my satisfaction but thanks to the help of several friends it’s sturdy and not going anywhere soon. I love the color and I’m so glad to have found it marked down significantly after admiring it in the store for a few years thinking it was overkill and perhaps a little too large for my strangely-shaped backyard
It turns out it fits beautifully and while there was some frustration and extreme fatigue over the course of six days to get it up, the features and security of having it, makes it worth it, especially since it can be seen from various parts of the neighborhood and it truly feels like a comfortable outdoor room/lanai, which is what I was going for.
As if the bogus election that was stolen there wasn’t bad enough, there is still a possibility that concocted charges against a woman for alleged adultery may end in her brutal death by stoning. Coincidentally there is an eerily similar movie coming out about another Iranian woman who was killed this way, but the reality of these killings — which of course also can be concocted against men for alleged gay sex — is far more brutal than even the depiction in the movie. What kind of world do we live in? The lawyer defending the woman also had to flee the country and now his wife is being held in prison! This is complete anarchy, as far as I’m concerned, and very Draconian. This is why the modernization of Iran is held back by religion, just as it is in Italy, to a lesser extreme.
Apr
20
2010
Apparently they’re color blind, as well, so the color doesn’t mean anything except for the human spectators. It’s the motion of the fabric that agitates them.
Heading up to Petaluma tonight to hang out with friends and a welcome change of scenery.
I find it very interesting that for the price of parking my (shitty, old) car downtown in the FiDi, I can RENT a car for a day in comfort, so that’s what I’m doing.
When did people start forgetting the United States President is the de facto Commander-in-Chief of the military?! That is clearly stated in the Constitution and it has worked to prevent us from having coups in this country. Countries with coups have an army ”independent” of the executive branch. Obama said repeal DADT! End of discussion! This should have been handled 17 years ago, but hypocrites like McCain who said he would follow “military leadership” (as if Bill Clinton himself wasn’t the Commander-in-Chief) reneged even when people like Colin Powell have changed their minds.
I know at least three active duty servicemen who I keep in regular contact with who are very comfortable with the fact that they are gay, even though it is not discussed where they work. I don’t think they are particularly afraid of losing their jobs, but it sure would be a lot less stressful ON THE BATTLEFIELD if they didn’t have to worry about their own colleagues turning their backs on them.
I’m excited about IBR starting next week, but miffed that my bear411 profile was inexplicably dismantled!