So where the hell did this year go? Ok, sure, I spent a quarter of it out of the country - about a third(!) of the year traveling total - but still, wasn't I just lamenting not having a date for last year's New Year's celebration, and then getting frustrated with getting the idiots at the body shop to replace my car window after some vandal broke it out?

I have retired to the Judge's Bench to consider the question. Thought about heading down to Leadbetter's or something, but goofed off on the computer until almost 11, and decided I didn't want to stink up my clothes with cigarette smoke. Not a trivial consideration when the laundry facilities are disrupted by construction and you have to rely on the laundromat.

Went to one last week. Odd how using a laundromat in some odd way makes me feel young, takes me back to when I lived in the dorms or apartment. Two notable things about this one. First, my first exposure to standard daytime TV in quite a while. Ellen Degeneres had on a kid with a talent for jumping, leaping over cars, whose great wish was to have his own Nike shoe and commercial - and I'm thinking, is this what we've come too? I dunno, maybe it's the contemporary equivalent of the Wheaties box - but as far as I know, Wheaties never used sweatshop labor...

Second, the bulletin board on the laundromat wall. All the notices, the ads, in Spanish. Every one of them.

Past few days - Solstice and Xmas stuff. Friday, Yule dinner at Joe's. Saturday, Hillary's Nth Annual Yule Party. Sunday, holiday party at Kyoshi Kate's. Monday, Xmas Eve, a firer and drum circle in the woods of Columbia, went to that with Jen. Tuesday, Xmas dinner with the parental units, then went over to visit with Kathy for a while.

Yesterday - tore up most of the utility/bathroom floor, four layers of old tile down to the cement slab. Went to Home Depot to scope out wall panels and floor treatment - returned today to buy the wall panels, which as it turned out I had to strap to the roof rack to get home. A bit more interesting that I planned. And I'm going to have cut them a bit to fit, and I realized I got the wrong adhesive - ah, the endless joys of home ownership.

Hmm, that's a good phrase for a writing exercise...

Spent most of today revamping the Maryland Seido Karate website, especially the Catonsville portion. Why not stop by and have a look?

Something I posted to Slashdot regarding Ron Paul and some of his batshit-crazy views.

No, I don't mean eliminating the IRS and Social Security, those I'm willing to discuss. I mean his relationship to consensual physical reality. Ron Paul's campain has picked up a lot of interest among libertarian-leaning internet folks, but I think a lot of them don't know his views on some key concepts, and might understand him as less of a friend of liberty if they saw him for the religious wacko he is.

But, puhlease give up the single-issue bullshit.

His position on Roe v. Wade is only a symptom, not the whole of his disease. It shows that his position is not one of preferring less government and more freedom, but of simply moving government powers around; and it shows the influence of irrational religious belief on his thoughts and opinions.

It shows that he's anti-science, when he makes statements such as "As an obstetrician, I know that partial birth abortion is never a necessary medical procedure." The whole purpose of intact dilation and extraction (the real name of the procedure) is to avoid damage to the woman's uterus. It is generally safer for the patient that dilation and evacuation. IDX is only "never a necessary medical procedure" if the health of the patient isn't a concern.

This is not a surprise from someone who, for all the noise he makes about the Constitution, believes that "a rigid separation between church and state has no basis in either the text of the Constitution", and who does not accept the reality of evolution.

Pure winnage as Santa meets Batman:

And speaking of Bats-related winnage, see this teaser for next summer's The Dark Knight.

Forbes notes the sixtieth birthday of the transistor, the technology that made electronics ubiquitous.

For today's exercise, Karla gave us a set of movie titles to use a prompts: Snowcake, You Kill Me, After the Wedding, First Take

when I was a kid, I'd fill a bowl with snow and my mom would put vanilla extract on it, a real snow ball

(snow cone for those you you not from baltimore)

childhood innocence ritual

Spent time yesterday and today working on clogged drains, snaking out the main line (tree roots) and the shower drain (nasty hair clog). Besides getting a finger caught and crushed up a bit (power snake grabbed my glove, twist, crush - safety equipment gone wrong. Not serious but annoying) this got me splattered with sewage...and so I thought of the zen koan about how "Buddha is a shit-covered stick"

Hello friends. Just wanted to remind you about this upcoming event. Please feel free to forward this to anyone who might be interested.

Introduction to Zen Meditation

Sunday Dec 16, 2:00 - 4:00 PM
The Well, 3711 Old Columbia Pike, 21043
(410) 418-8944
www.ellicottcitywellness.com

Wired reports on how "security flaws in the new RFID-powered [Nike+ iPod] from Nike and Apple make it easy for tech-savvy stalkers, thieves and corporations to track your movements."

While I'm not surprised that a product from a team-up of such notable corporate bastards has problems, the carelessness here - the system turns your running shoes into radios transmitting uncoded "here I am!" messages to range of about 60 feet - is notable.