Moving Day Part 2

The HP claims that there is no link to the new site in Moving Day #1. I have a link when I look at that post, but just to be on the safe side, here it is again: Tell It To COACHIE.

Moving Day

Hello everyone! You were warned that this day was coming, and now I've got my new site up and running. Actually, it's up, but not fully running. If you click on the tabs that say "about" or "links" or "here" you'll find nothing, but I'm working on it. What happened was that while I was experimenting to see whether I could move everything here to the new site, I jumped the gun, and moved everything before I was ready. Now I've had to publish at both places to keep this one running and the other one up to date. Those extra mouse clicks are like spinning plates that I just can't run between any more.

I named this site 1500 words because I was trying to push myself to write a lot. Now that I've got the 2 blogs, 1500 words seems too long to write and usually too long to read. So I'm coming out from under that label so I can post as little or as much as I want at the new place without the title looking down and tsk-tsking at me. The Entropy Three will continue in its same spot.

Another advantage of the new site is the categories so all of my stuff can be filed away and if you are desperate to reread the post about when I cut the lawn, it will be easier to find.

For those of you that registered here to comment, I apologize that you'll probably have to reregister at the new site. This site will remain here too, because I'm too busy (lazy) to redo all of the links and because not all of the pictures transferred.

The challenges of learning to design the web page continue (like that font change in the middle of the post, don't even know where to begin fixing that), but hopefully it will be adequate for now. Anyway, thanks for reading and now I hope you'll click here to see the new site.

A Short Recap of the Amazing Race

I'm too tired to go on at length with how pleased I am that Peter and Sarah are done for the season. They were so annoying that they almost drove me to Extreme Home Makeover (and that show has way too much emotion to watch on a regular basis). As a public service to those of you who don't watch The Amazing Race here's a little recap of Peter's performance this season:

Early in the race: "I just love, love, love my one-legged girlfriend."

Middle of the race: "My one-legged girlfriend is so slow and annoying."

End of the race: "I think my one-legged girlfriend and I will probably just be friends."

After Sarah tells Phil that Peter is not nurturing or kind: "How dare my one-legged girlfriend speak that way to me! I am going to f#$%&ng kill my one-legged girlfriend."

And if you freeze frame that scene, you can see it all over his face.

A Sticky Wicket (Caused by a Cricket)

I have previously remarked that I am willing to live with the crickets that cohabitate with us, provided that they stay in the closets. This has not always been a great arrangement; especially that time when I put my bare foot into a shoe containing cricket remains. The main problem I have with our crickets is that they are really, really slow. When faced with certain demise under a shoe or magazine, they just sit there. Usually I will try to nudge them toward the closet or behind a piece of furniture, but half the time I end up breaking one or more of their legs.

I recently decided that possibly the crickets appear in the middle of the floor because they are ready to die, perhaps of starvation. I have no idea what crickets eat, although I could probably name five or six things that eat crickets, including people in Korea if I remember correctly. I decided to ask the internet what crickets eat, to determine whether or not they are finding food in my closets. I’ll admit that I was also eager to confirm that they do not dine on mouse droppings or cockroaches or human remains or other things that I’m assuming are not in my closets.

While information on what crickets eat was rather hard to find, I did learn this information from Wikipedia:

"Crickets are popular pets and are considered good luck in Asia, especially China where they are kept in cages (Carrera 1991). It is also common to have them as caged pets in some European countries, at least in the Iberian Peninsula. Cricket fighting as a blood sport has also been popular, particularly in Macao."

Um, what?

As it turns out, according to ezine articles:

“Crickets are omnivores and feed on almost anything-usually organic materials, plant decay, grass, fruits, seedling plants, fungi and even meat. Crickets need good diet otherwise they tend to feed on each other.”

So, I’m going to go with that last bit - that I’ve got squeaky clean closets and a crazy sect of cannibalistic crickets on my hands. The ones that come out into the open to die are obviously wracked with guilt over their lifestyle or weak from spending so much time in hiding from the more aggressive ones. All of that is fine with me. If the crickets need to work out their demons in the middle of my dining room floor, I’ll give them space.

What I will not tolerate, however, is their new trick of lurking in the toilet. Another interesting bit in the ezine article was: “Crickets also need a good supply of water. However, keep the water away from the food to keep the food dry and fresh. Insert cotton swabs into the water vessel to prevent the crickets from drowning.” Clearly they are not good swimmers, so why would they choose the toilet as a new hang out? Three times in the past month I have found rather large crickets perched inside the toilet bowl. Each time I gasped, shuddered, and flushed them down because bugs are gross enough without rescuing them from places of questionable cleanliness (want to come visit me?). They put on rather a dramatic show as they circle the bowl, first fighting against the pull and then almost shrugging as their thin little legs start to swirl around them with the force of the water.

I guess bugs in the toilet would not prompt most people to write an essay. Unfortunately, my repeated encounters with the crickets have brought to the forefront of my mind a horrifying story that my friend John told me in college. Apparently, one afternoon when his mother was using the bathroom, a rat came up out of the toilet. He said after that day she always kept a teakettle full of water on top of the toilet lid, in case anything else ever tried to come in that way. Honestly, since this was a true incident (and if you saw how he gave a little laugh and shook his head and said “my poor mother” you’d believe him too) and not an urban legend, for the past 20 years I have been uneasy that such a thing could happen. (Not to mention all those news stories about snakes in the plumbing). More times than I care to admit, I have glanced down into the bowl and inspected the pipes behind it and wondered if a creature could make it into my bathroom. I think that fear is a main reason that I am so quickly in and out of the bathroom at bars and parties.

And so the crickets will not earn any sympathy from me. Maybe they are thirsty, maybe they are hiding from their cannibalistic friends, maybe they are just looking for a way to die. But as long as there is even the slightest possibility that something that would like to eat a cricket is lurking in my plumbing and looking for a reason to surface, the crickets will be destroyed quickly and without remorse.

Caution: This One is Depressing

Somehow yesterday I stumbled upon this article about the shootings of the little Amish girls in September. I couldn't get to the New York Times article it referenced (because it costs money and I'm in favor of a free press), but I did read this article which contained excerpts of the New York Times article. While the Pennsylvania police went out of their way to emphasize that the school was "a target of opportunity" and that the gunman probably did not have anything against the Amish, the author of the Times article, Bob Hebert, describes the attack as a hate crime because one group was singled out for terror: little girls.

Hebert states that the lack of in-depth media response, extensive coverage, or outrage was due to the fact that the victims were

"just girls, and we have become so accustomed to living in a society saturated with misogyny that violence against females is more or less to be expected. Stories about the rape, murder and mutilation of women and girls are staples of the news, as familiar to us as weather forecasts. The startling aspect of the Pennsylvania attack was that this terrible thing happened at a school in Amish country, not that it happened to girls."

Maybe he is right, I never considered that point of view. I assumed the toned-down coverage had something to do with trying not to exploit the Amish or because it didn't happen in Aruba, but maybe it was because it was "familiar news". Honestly, I didn't care that the lifespan of that story was short and that the details were spotty. Not because I didn't care about the victims and their families, but because I have lost all hope that there is anything that can be done about it.

What solutions could possibly be proposed? Better gun control? That could never happen, regardless of the opinions of average Americans. Cozying up to parents trying to protect their kids does not bring financial rewards. Why would an elected official listen to us when the NRA is available with open checkbooks? More security at the schools? Obviously the Amish are not going to install metal detectors, and even if they had them, this attack would have likely transpired in exactly the same way. Since the Amish problems had no easy solution, the discussion of school safety seemed to die even quicker than the story of the shootings. Our kiddies had a "stranger danger" drill shortly after the incident, but if someone was determined to harm kids at that school, he'd likely gain some measure of success. A politician can find no money in upgrading school safety, and no money for upgrading school safety, because all of it is getting kicked back through tax cuts.

If I had to pick an overwhelming emotion for the past year, it wouldn't be sadness or loneliness or even anxiety, although I've had my share of all three. What I feel most often is helplessness. What happens in Washington never intersects with what goes on in my life. Articles like this and this and this and this only reinforce my feeling that our elected officials are not only unconcerned with the problems of average Americans, but contemptuous of us. They think we're stupid. Politicians assume that if they tell us the problems we see with our own eyes aren't there or that solutions are coming, then we'll believe them.

I used to have some hope that in November, if Congress changed hands, something might improve, but I don't feel that way anymore. After John McCain signed off on terror, I finally admitted to myself that politics is only about the power. I have bored my family with this sentiment before, but to me, God spoke right to John McCain and said, "You know what happened to you. You can keep it from happening to someone else. What are you going to do about it?" And John McCain answered, "I can't worry about that now. I'm trying to get elected president."

While I have always been an optimistic and idealistic person, now it is obvious even to me that politicians will do anything to get power and then hold onto it, regardless of their rhetoric or intentions on the way in. Even with the internet and blogs and all the mainstream and fringe news, no one is accountable. The average voters will never find out whether their congressperson actually tried to do what he/she promised. The motivation to fulfill the wishes of the voters probably evaporates quickly.

And so the sad conclusion of my train of thought from yesterday is: I realize that I can't waste any more hope on politics and I'm out of optimism for the future of the country. I have to narrow my focus to my own family and find my happiness and hopefulness there. Luckily, the kiddies are smart and cheerful and optimistic(and cute). Maybe someday they'll find a way to change the things that the HP and I must protect them from now.