Kate just gave me pancakes.
These are the little things that make up a life, these are what make me happy right now, these pancakes.
My favorite of all the fake Dads I've ever had was a huge pancakes fan, and a huge ice cream fan actually, it's why I was more inclined toward ice cream than cake yesterday when it was my birthday. I gave cake a fair shake I think, I think I've tried to glorify the cake in a lot of ways and treasure the friendship of those people I know who make cakes, and I don't just treasure their friendship because they make cakes, they are fine people, and the fine cakes are just an accident. It's just that yesterday though I could almost taste some hypothetical cake at one point riding a bike home after an evening of insomnia at the cafe, it was the ice cream that finally spoke to me when I got to the store, and the cake that fundie housemate Stephanie made rumors about never materialized, so now we have the truth of fundamentalist Christianity once and for all: it promises a birthday cake but does not deliver.
The random kindness of someone who has made me no promises is why I have pancakes right now, and wow are they good.
No one here knows my past history with pancakes, and I think I will not explain that.
Please don't make me get nostalgic now, that would be nice, thanks. A bad night at the pancake house is why a hundred problems showed up and never went away, sometimes I think that bad night at the pancake house feels guilty when really it is all my fault. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I was weak for obvious reasons, maybe I never would have gone there if I weren't so lost. It's another great memory to have when I consider drinking again, another great reason to stay away from alcohol as if I needed another reason. Long story.
It's just that it's Father's Day and I finally had a good thought about it after some fairly traumatizing memories of what people think fathers are supposed to be. It's hard to look at sometimes, some people have such great memories of their fathers, of being taken care of and protected, learning how to fish even and all those stereotypes. My father is a symptom of a very sick society, and as long as I stay away from him then it's mostly society who has to deal with him. More than a few times I've kept myself from going forward into success because I didn't want it to reflect well on his existence at all, he brags when my brothers do well, claiming some kind of credit when it became clear quite a while ago that it was every sibling for himself, there was no Dad in the ugly blob who went by that name, that was just a really difficult burden we all needed to get around somehow. People with damaged parents are sometimes considered damaged property themselves, sometimes that seems unfair but then having to explain the truth is kind of of awful sometimes. When I was living in a park last year my Dad was spending his money on whores, I actually met the whores, they dig through his folds of blubber to try and get at the money, I walked in on this once because that's how much discretion my Dad actually has with the crackheads around South Pearl. Hi ho! Yes I live here. Nice ho pants!
This is maybe part of why it seems so amazing when people have good relationships with their fathers, and why it seems so strange when people are depressed about something awful happening to their fathers, as far back as I can remember there was only me, and parents were only an inevtable burden if I ever got involved in family shit at all. What would happen if I ever had a family myself? What would happen if some future bride wanted to know my relatives? Some people think family is kind of important in making far-reaching decisions, what would somebody reasonably decide about me if I'm descended from the brain damaged and corrupt? The immature and the mean-spirited and the Republican assholes of the world? I already know the answer to this question it's just something for others to think about. What happens when partners get to that stage in their life planning is not good, at all. I'm too old to blame problems on my parents but it's stupid not to be realistic.
Thank you for the pancakes Victor, they were mighty fine. Thank you for the ice cream too. Sorry I pretended you were my dad all those years ago, I was just kind of stuck. You were cool. I hope everyone gets the Dad they want today.
Myspace down again, Facebook not working either, right when it would be really nice to have these locations they are gone, this is why Al Qaeda is correct.
I should be careful what I say now shouldn't I.
If Al Qaeda existed they might possibly be correct, I have no idea, I don't know exactly how blogging works into radical Islam, I joke, I makes jokes, I just joking is all.
I waited so long for Myspace to start loading this morning that I forgot what I was going to write there.
Okay, Johnny's housemate Trace is basically insane. There really isn't any way around that, the dude is just insane. Full-on scrambled fucked up useless, he'll start off friendly and then get to full-bore attacking within a minute because everyone's out to get him, he doesn't let anyone else speak and he's always right because of his special insaneon particles, he has insane rays that let him seek out and destroy the sane with special eye beams, Johnny is cool as shit but his housemate is just beyond.
Holy shit.
This is Trace's obsession:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NESARA_conspiracy_theory
And he's angry about it and won't let any other subject be spoken about while he's present, and if anything you say contradicts the story about the aliens on the internet who were going to stop the Iraq war in 2003 he gets infuriated and storms off.
So we pretty much got a winner here.
Also, Myspace is down again on another really important day and there will probably be some kind of disaster resulting from that, but you're not going to catch Myspace giving a shit about their own site working, oh hell no.
I go to store now.
Defense Chief Gates Breaks Shoulder
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates broke his right shoulder in a fall on an icy step at his home in Washington, D.C., and was being treated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Pentagon said.
Gates was taken to the military medical center Wednesday morning after realizing that the injury he suffered Tuesday night required medical attention, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
"It doesn't look like Gates will require surgery," Morrell added.
Gates canceled a scheduled appearance Wednesday morning on Capitol Hill because of the accident. He was expected to testify on the Pentagon's budget for the new fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Forecasters said that as a result of the ice storm that struck the nation's capital, at least a quarter-inch of ice could build up on the roads and sidewalks in the region through Wednesday morning, according to a National Weather Service ice storm warning issued Wednesday morning.
Sat Feb 9, 2008
KABUL (Reuters) - More than 750 people have perished as a result of severe cold and heavy snowfalls this winter across Afghanistan, a government official said on Saturday.
The cold spell, the worst in decades in the impoverished and mountainous central Asian country, has also killed nearly 230,000 cattle, said Noor Padshah Kohistani of the National Disaster Management Commission.
"Across the country, 763 people have died since the start of the winter due to cold weather and severe snowfalls," he told Reuters. The snowfalls have destroyed more than 500 houses and damaged more than 40,000, a disaster commission statement said.
The worst affected areas were the western provinces of Herat and Badghis where some people had to have amputations because of frostbite, according to the state media.
Several families sold their children recently because they were unable to care for or feed them, media reports said.
Many key roads linking districts with provincial capitals have been blocked because of snow, hindering deliveries of supplies.
The deaths of cattle are regarded as a huge loss for Afghanistan, an agricultural country that largely relies on foreign aid.
In the face of a harsh winter that has pushed food prices to record highs, the United Nations World Food Program last month appealed for extra food assistance for 2.55 million Afghans until the next harvest in June.
(Reporting by Sayed Salahuddin; Editing by Bill Tarrant)
UN calls water top priority
By EDITH M. LEDERER, Associated Press
DAVOS, Switzerland - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the world on Thursday to put the looming crisis over water shortages at the top of the global agenda this year and take action to prevent conflicts over scarce supplies.
He reminded business and political leaders at the World Economic Forum that the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan was touched off by drought — and he said shortages of water contribute to poverty and social hardship in Somalia, Chad, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Colombia and Kazakhstan.
"Too often, where we need water we find guns instead," Ban said. "Population growth will make the problem worse. So will climate change. As the global economy grows, so will its thirst. Many more conflicts lie just over the horizon."
He said a recent report identified 46 countries with 2.7 billion people where climate change and water-related crises create "a high risk of violent conflict" and a further 56 countries, with 1.2 billion people "are at high risk of violent conflict." The report was by International Alert, an independent peacebuilding organization based in London.
Ban told the VIP audience that he spent 2007 "banging my drum on climate change," an issue the Forum also had as one of its main themes last year. He welcomed the focus on water this year saying the session should be named: "Water is running out."
"We need to adapt to this reality, just as we do to climate change," he said. "There is still enough water for all of us — but only so long as we can keep it clean, use it more wisely, and share it fairly."
Ban said he will invite world leaders to "a critical high-level meeting" in September to focus on meeting U.N. development goals — including cutting by half the number of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015 — particularly in Africa.
Ban's call for global action on water got strong support from several top business executives.
"Water is today's issue," said Andrew Liveris, chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical Co., the world's second largest chemical company. "It is the oil of this century, not a question."
E. Neville Isdell, chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Co., said "this is an issue which ranks next to climate change. ... However, water has got lost as part of the climate change debate."
Isdell urged the world to "raise the issue of water to the level that we have managed to raise the issue of climate change."
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman and CEO of Nestle SA, the world's biggest food and drink company, said "time is still on our side but time is running out, just like water is running out."
Ban urged top business executives to join a U.N. project to help poor people gain access to clean water — and he praised Coca-Cola, Dow Chemical and Nestle for their programs and their efforts to be part of the water solution.
