elainegrey

So, yesterday i took it very easy. Much of Tuesday evening may be some asthma flare, but i'm now wondering about GERD. Can i have it without feeling much in the way of discomfort?

Christine assured me i was being reasonable taking the day so easy: it is a challenge because i know the behavioral expectations i was raised with is to work until you drop. I have recognized that those expectations are fallacious: one then drops for a much longer time than if one took the time to care for oneself. Unfortunately, i look at her family's behavioral expectations and read it as mollycoddling. Is this because my family expectations are so extreme that reasonable expectations are all distorted? It probably is, as i cannot for the life of me figure out where i would be "comfortable" except at the point of waiting until i drop.

So, i rested after the 11 am phone call, where i found myself muting the phone so folks wouldn't hear me panting. "Hmm, panting, i bet my lungs still aren't working very well."

I received an invitation and $100 from adwords.google.com to test setting up an adwords account. That was something i could piddle with as entertainment, and so i did. Christine has suggested making advertisements for causes, and i find myself uncomfortable making ads and pointing them to some organization's stuff. Somehow, the impression of "responsibility" seems misleading if my ad points to someone else's URL. I worry about stepping on the toes of someone who is working carefully to craft a message and promote the issue in an organization. i worry about board members getting irate: who knows if they decided not to get Google Ad Words or if they make final approval and it seems someone isn't following the process of the organization. If i promote a cause here, it's not coming from the official body, and that's clear. If i run an ad to an official organization's website.... Anyhow, Christine's goign to see if we can donate some of the $100 in impressions to some cause we care about. Best i can tell, the $100 will last forever advertising my creek blog postings.

I received the invitation because i am apparently a successful user of Google analytics. This is an interesting use of the word "successful" as i've not hooked my analytics account up to any page in my grey cat domain. http://yoast.com/wordpress/google-analytics/ is a plugin i could use: do i really care, though?

A FB friend suggested all her friends "look at Spokeo.com. A new online USA phonebook w/personal information: everything from pics to credit score, home value, income, age, etc. Remove yourself by first searching for yourself to find the URL of your page, then going to the Privacy button on the bottom of their page to remove yourself. Copy & repost so people are aware." The data is all poorly correlated. I'm linked to another "Elaine X Grey" whom i knew about when i lived in Philly because she had credit problems and i'd get her calls. She apparently lives in Latrobe, PA now and my web photo (the one i use here at facebook & everywhere else) is displayed for her. Oddly, my calendar was reminding me that it was time to get one of the three free credit reports per year, so i got Equifax, and it seemed pretty quiet.

I continued with my reading about the Gulf Oil spill, particularly the naturally occurring oil seeps [image]. I also contributed to the San Francisco Save the Bay's recommendation of the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.
( About CA proposition 14 and others )

In a fit of utter silliness, i bought my Mom a http://www.mouthman.com/ [Warning: auto sound, can turn off player at bottom of page] t-shirt of an alligator. Mother alligators are somewhat remarkable, and she went to the University of Florida. I can imagine her playing with her grandkids while wearing it.

In the very late afternoon, after a nap, i went back to my work computer and banged out an analysis that i've needed to do but had been triggering some overwhelm. I could have taken all afternoon to do it in my procrastination state and been miserable. I know there's a lesson here: i'm not entirely sure what it is.

Last night i left work later, faced a double duration commute and complained about the UNFAIRNESS OF IT ALL -- oh, woe -- as next week's additional commutes will all be rain sodden.

Christine and i went out to eat, partly because i will be absent many evenings next week and will at least have one company dinner out. We went to Armadillo Willies, a carnivore haven, where i broke my wheat fast on onion rings and fish tacos. I don't expect any observable physical response.

Home with a brief game of suduko, a donation to my friend's project in Haiti, and to bed.

This morning finds me plowing through a ton of email. Three day/two night tours around California's water ways learning about water management? I wish i justify it. Fantasy me, the one who is a citizen water expert, would love to go: http://www.watereducation.org/toursdoc.asp?id=821 The real me wonders how much resources that fantasy me should get. The tours remind me that the Moffett Field Advisory Board met last night, so i read up on the meeting. It was, of course, overwhelmed by Hangar One discussion ("Think of the windows!") which i can respect but also makes me crazy. I did find an environmental question to pursue, but i'm not sure how to get it asked.

The other thing i'm preoccupied with this morning is this report from the BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8459744.stm - which documents Senators Lieberman and Collins writing the Pentagon with the advice that the US military should train soldiers "from enlisted personnel to commanders" to recognise and report "the warning signs of violent Islamist extremism." What bugs me is that Christian extremism in the US military has been a growing albeit long term problem.

This July 2009 letter (pdf) (to Lieberman and others) from the Southern Poverty Law Center documents reports from both the SPLC and the FBI and Homeland Security about Neo-Nazi and White Supremacist extremists growing in presence in the military. This sentence, "Since 1994, the military has discharged more than 12,500 servicemembers simply because of their homosexuality," in contrast with the description of a man flaunting his neo Nazi beliefs on his own web page was "not sufficient to remove him from the military" is maddening -- especially having read recently the story of an invisible military partner who couldn't express her goodbyes in public due to DADT.

The request to just focus on Muslim extremism plays right into Christian Extremist calls to purge the military of all Muslims.

Ugh. The second half of the morning spent reading about the long list of right wing terror attacks in the US, the continuing armed standoffs with various folks who believe they are called spiritually to arm themselves to the teeth....

This morning i'm scattered but keep returning to my commitment to be involved in a more consistent way with the many issues i care about. I'd hoped one cause would "float to the top" and i could say that's where i'd focus for the next few months. Instead, i remain unfocused. However, outside forces seem to have helped me focus for month-long sprints.

In May, i'm going to focus on the CA Budget. There's an election where CA citizens get to play legislators and try to fix budget issues by voting on a six issues (http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/). There's also this movement, which addresses the actual core of the budget problems: http://www.ecovote.org/budget/

I'm also going to write a response to the bizarre flyer circulated in the complex about the chemicals the gardeners use. (It's not that the flyer didn't have agreeable sentiments, but it was written with such a inflammatory and misleading slant. It brings to mind dihydrogen monoxide concerns.

In June, there's a torture awareness month effort. Members of our Meeting have discussed about how the relationship of the US and torture affects not just enemy combatants but how spirit breaking, degrading treatment occurs in California's prison system.

That leaves July.

Give thanks, share beauty, note joy:

* Precipitation! Not really rain, exactly, but drizzle and sprinkles.
* Light box, which i wish i had been using these past days, during which the celebrated precipitation has occurred.

Noteworthy events (dining out, errands, correspondence):

I've been far more social these days that usual, partly due a confluence of possibilities. It has occurred to me that perhaps i should violate the instruction that an Artist's Date is done alone and make my Artist's date more social. Artist's dates just are odd for me anyhow, as i am happy to give way to my creative curiosity for little bits. I don't need to go out to find inspiration. I've boxes of stuff that invite play. If i were to speculate what would be more creativity stimulating it would be a weekly time set aside strictly for playing with some medium stashed in the house.

Thursday was the copyright conference which, thanks to Twitter, i attended with @inforama. Friday we joined stef_tm's happy hour and spoke with folks who actually knew how to do small talk. It was good to meet Stef in person. Afterwards, we escaped the noise of Tied House to look at used books (extinguishing all the credit), beads, and had dinner at Kapps, both of us reading a Lord Peter Wimsey novel.

Yesterday we had a very long morning coffee at Cafe Sophia with a subset of BWWW*ES, the colleagues and retired colleagues, but not the moved-on colleagues.

I ended up completing both Wimsey novels, to be released at the office. I'll probably gather a stack of books to trade at the used book store and then replenish the office stacks as i find fitting targets.

Regrets: I've moved this up because i do feel regretful these days.

* I wish i'd gotten my act together to get the laptop to WeFixMacs for a drive installation: they take over a day, they claim. I have a connection with Some Guy that i need to follow up upon to deal with this.
* I wish i wasn't spending so many evenings as a couch potato. I must do something with the early morning working thing as it looks like the project i am now involved in will require an irregular 6 am Wed call.
* I wish i'd arranged to be at MayDay dancing this morn, despite the wee bit of damp. Instead, i watched a goofy movie till late last night and very much slept in.

( the usual )