It’s way too hot and muggy for me to function right now. Damn the Santa Ana winds. I have a yard to weed, herbs to harvest, a site update to finish, and about 30 overdue orders to prepare, and all I can do is sit and drool.
I’ve been a moron all week. I left a money order at the table when Brian and I went out to lunch yesterday. Grr.
Tonight is Lon DuQuette’s Practical Enochian Magick workshop. I’ve been so excited all month, but the heat and smoke in the air is dulling my enthusiasm. The time change isn’t helping my nerves, either. I’m so wonky over it… I woke up at 7am this morning in a state of delirious confusion. I didn’t have time to make the pumpkin cheesecake (the workshop is potluck — n33t!) so I caved in and bought $50 worth of pastries from a local bakery instead. Somehow, I’m wracked with guilt over this.
I’ll post about the class when I get home tonight, assuming I have any energy left.
Bring on the Red Bull.
You have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life; and then turned to the friend at your side who appears to be seeing what you saw – but at the first words a gulf yawns between you, and you realise that this landscape means something totally different to him, that he is pursuing an alien vision and cares nothing for the ineffable suggestion by which you are transported . . . All the things that have deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it – tantalising glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest – if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself – you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say ‘Here at last is the thing I was made for.’ We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want . . . which we shall still desire on our deathbeds . . . Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it – made for it stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand.
C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
Has anyone else out here in So Cal noticed how hideous the sky was this morning? The world is in sepia.
More on that after my coffee percolates.
… I am compelled to pass this on.
– – –
Days before the second anniversary of the signing of the USA PATRIOT Act, the Senate Judiciary Committee held the first of a series of hearings to examine federal anti-terrorism laws. The ACLU is calling upon Congress to ensure that the powers granted to law enforcement are being used properly and to examine their necessity.
There has been growing momentum on Capitol Hill to restore the civil liberties lost through legislation post 9/11. Currently, there are several bi-partisan measures pending in both chambers of Congress that seek to rollback parts of the controversial USA PATRIOT Act.
A new bill recently introduced by Senators Larry Craig (R-ID) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) is a major step forward in the fight to restore checks on federal domestic spying powers. The bill — known as the SAFE Act of 2003 — would narrow several controversial sections of the USA PATRIOT Act and is garnering bipartisan support.
This bill would permanently narrow the “sneak and peek” provision in the Patriot Act, which allows federal agents to search Americans’ homes without notifying them for an indeterminate period.
It also addresses Section 215 of the bill, which allows the FBI to obtain Americans’ medical, business, library and even genetic records without probable cause. Specifically, it would require government investigators to show that the individual under suspicion has some connection to a foreign government or organization.
This bill is being introduced at a time when nearly 200 communities have passed pro-civil liberties, anti-PATRIOT Act resolutions and several months after Representative C.L. Otter (R-ID) saw his amendment defunding sneak and peek searches in the PATRIOT Act pass by an overwhelming majority in the House.
“This isn’t an abstract, academic debate — it’s about how our Constitution and Bill of Rights provide ground rules for every American to enjoy freedom and safety in equal measure,” said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office
( continued )
I’d like to point out that, at 3:04 am (PDT), a little less than eight hours from now, we will be entering the Lunar Via Combusta, which happens to be situated dead-center in the Solar Via Combusta. This will last until 4:46 am (PDT) Sunday, October 26.
During this period, avoid impulse purchases, keep your pecker in your pocket and your panties unbunched, and for ghods’ sake, don’t piss anybody off.
Especially me.
– – –
Great. Just what I need this week.
Right. So I’m forcing myself to post, even though I’m dead fucking tired, and I have so many overdue shipments to pack, it’s making my fuckin’ head spin.
A million hugs to my bouncy blonde brother, without whom the Lab would have ceased to exist.
Ted’s birthday was on the 17th. We’re not going to talk about that day, since it was shit.
On the 18th we went to his mother’s surprise party in the afternoon, and then went to see Kiss / Aerosmith at Hyundai Pavilion that night. The party was really cool. I love Ted, and I love his family, and most importantly… his mommy was a very, very happy girl.
Once again, I’ll say… it does pay to work in the music industry. Backstage passes, killer seats, and drink tickets… life is good. Kiss was perfectly killer as usual — you can’t beat copious stage blood and explosions for a sure-fire good time — but it really was all about Aerosmith. If you haven’t seen them perform, you haven’t lived. Ted has seen them perform every single time they’ve been in Los Angeles since 1976 or some shit. Me, I’ve only seen them five times so far, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Joy and jubilation: they’re coming back to So Cal in December, and it’s a show we’re promoting.
Life is good, indeed.
Going to shows (particularly Aerosmith) is always a really romantic night for me and my consort, despite having to sit in the bed of my truck for almost two hours, waiting to get out of the bloody parking lot. I’m not going to get into the gory details, suffice to say that it was an evening I won’t soon forget.
Yeah, I love that guy. Five years together in December.
Right. Enough writing for now. I was going to delve into my theories about why contemporary ‘rock’ shows suck my ass, but I need to get back to work.
Jessica Simpson is a complete and utter moron.
A million thanks to stonemirror, my favorite news correspondent, for bringing this to my attention.
