Forget It, Jake...

Sometimes I really irritate myself. On the way into work today I had the coolest idea for a post. I could even picture it on the ugly green-y GFT template - the Greg Ryan story below this great post full of clever, thoughtful writing that would get this terrific discussion going in the "comments" section.

And then I lost it.

I mean as in completely gone. Disappeared, vanished without a mental trace. My mind as empty and serene as a cloudless summer's day.
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WTF!!?? How the hell can that happen? I must be losing my fucking mind. It'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. An American tragedy - brain-dead at 50. Jesus wept.
Big excitement around the Fire Direction Center today: the "Early Intervention" people are there looking over our Little Missy. I haven't heard from Mojo so I'm not sure what they did or what they found, and I'm a mixture of excited and nervous. I hope they have a cunning plan to help Shaomei become the best actress-brain surgeon-astronaut she can be...!

Those of you who read this blog know that I really like to cartoon and cartooning. Tooling around on the web I ran into this site - WARNING: NOT WORK SAFE! (which means there's nekkid girly pitchures here!). I have to say - I love the artist's delightfully curvy, and extra-curvy, women. I've always suspected that many of us guys aren't all that thrilled at the stick-insect women that are pushed at us as "beautiful". Certainly I can remember thinking back when "Ally McBeal" was such a big hit: "Damn but that woman is scary-skinny..."
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I'm not saying that you have to be as anti-thin as "Fat Actress". But, dammit, the thing that makes a woman womanly is the curvy bits. If you're skinny, fine. But if you have a little bit more curvy in the curvy parts...mmmm. That, I like. And apparently so does "W. Means".

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I know some people living in the San Fernando Valley - which means that I've been watching the fires on the news with some concern. After all the loud noise we've had through the past seven years over war and terror and government malfeasance...wouldn't it be odd to think that in a decade we might well be thinking back on the Bush Years as the beginning of the time we seriously worried about climate change? Will events like Katrina, and now this, seem more critical than all the snooping and spying?

Coming this Friday the last word for Portland schoolboy soccer: Lincoln H.S. at Grant H.S., with the undefeated season for Grant on the line.
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In the interests of full disclosure I have to admit that I coached at Benson Polytechnic between 2001 and 2003 and loathed Grant's coach for the thuggish tactics he taught (or at least encouraged) among his players during that time. But as a former, temporary, unpaid PIL coach, I'd love to see a PIL school take the state schoolboy soccer title. It's never been done.
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But...I have to say this. When the PIL was nine high schools is made some sort of sense to give Portland four playoff spots. But now that the OSAA has divided the PIL into 6A and 5A? Giving three spots to the PIL 6A schools is nuts. If Benson beats Wilson Thursday night Wilson will go to state 3-4-1. That's messed up. C'mon, OSAA, get real.

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And speaking of messed up stuff...note the map below. This is the official City of Portland "landslide hazard" map. The darker brown area? That's what the City considers it's "lanslide hazard zone". It's the whole freaking West Hills!

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I don't mind making money, but...c'mon! I went to look at a site today that barely had enough landscape to hide a gopher. This is just laziness, Portland. You don't have enough time, or money, to actually go out and try and figure out where the really steep parts are, so you just throw the whole thing in a bag and make the poor landowner figure it out. That ain't right.

I know that siblings are supposed to be all snippy with each other but...it's different when you're the mommy and daddy. I have a lot of sympathy for my little guy, but I swear if I hear another "STOP IT MEI-MEI!!" when Little Missy is just doing what a toddler does...
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The other interesting thing is how the whole "older-kid-regresses" thing works out. So far with the Peeper it's just 1) he wants his milk in a bottle instead of a sippy and 2) he's WAY needy - wants to be picked up and held, etc., etc...
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Mojo says that the little neighbor girl had a different approach. She wanted to go back in diapers - and announced when her parents refused that she'd just damn well poop in her pants, then.
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Call me a Bad Daddy but my reaction? "Okay, honey, but I'll bet the other kids at school won't want to play with you when the poop-smell from your pants gets really strong..."

Finished "Empire of Ivory" yesterday out at T-6 (see below). Good stuff. The author is taking this series in an interesting, dark direction that wasn't obvious in the first two "Hornblower on dragonback" books of the set.
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One aspect that I enjoy about this is the writing, which is a cut above the usual genre fiction. Novik has done some work among the period writers and has a nice feel for early 19th Century dialogue. One of the problems I have with historical fiction is that the characters often talk and act like contemporaries in period costumes. Novik's "Temeraire" characters are recognizably Regency people with attitudes and attributes more in common with their time than ours. And that's the real fun of historical fiction - not just the fiction part, but the sense of getting a glimpse of a time gone past and into the minds and hearts of people long dead.

My friend Meghan sent me a long e-mail full of bullshit from the people opposing Oregon ballot measure 49. This didn't shock me - I'm used to raging against the Lying of the Right. It's just another reminder that the term "conservative" has become synonymous with "traitor". 21st Century "conservatism" has come to stand for a mean, grasping, small-minded hatred of everything not white, male, profitable and Anglo-Saxon.
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A lot of my work comes from land development, and I can't pretend that I'm particularly green myself. But this brutal, greedy "It's my land and I'll do what I want because I want to" ethic is just too much. I hope this ballot measure passes by a whopping margin.
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Am I a Bad Daddy to buy the 12-year-old son of a family friend (the family of Oscar the Ginormous Fish) an Airsoft M4A1 rifle?

She was a synchronized swimmer before synchro was cool. She was famously so tall that Gene Kelly was mean to her on the set of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game". Her boyfriend Jeff Chandler liked to dress in women's clothes. And right now she's not feeling so well. So a big "Get Well Soon" to one of the Chief's favorite classic Hollywood actresses, Esther Williams. Hope you're back in the pool soon, Es.

Damn. I wish I could remember that idea for a blog post. Oh, well, I guess I just don't have anything to say.