Tidbits

Government - Sadly, it seems to be true that the "liberal" democrats are really no different than the "conservative" republicans when it comes to issues of liberties and interference of the private lives of American citizens. Obama's administration is happily continuing the Bush precedent of invasively monitoring US citizens in direct violation of the principles and laws under which this country was established. Democrats also continue to pander to and pay off the various financial behemoths responsible for most of the economic crisis we are experiencing, despite their strong rhetoric of similar behaviour from the Republicans just a year ago, as they wound their pre-election hysteria to an all-time high. For myself, I was hoping that the cost of Democratic leadership (which was always going to be more debt and higher taxes for all, despite the repeated assurances to the contrary) would be at least nominally offset by an increase, or at least some protection of, the remaining freedoms we have. Unfortunately, it's business as usual in Washington, with both sides continuing the decades old practices of cowtowing to big corporations while pushing their financial or power motivated agendas designed only to benefit themselves. I wish I could say I was surprised.

Writing - I'm finding myself wishing I was better able to recall and organize my memories of the past. While I'm sure that I have a lot of experiences which would be great fodder for fictional character inspiration or non-fictional recollection, sitting down and attempting to pull them from thin air has been surprisingly difficult. Pictures help with general memories but don't seem to do much for remembering specific details that would be useful for use in writing. Video or voice recording may provide more utility but would likely carry their own challenges in terms of acquiring, storing and organizing in a manner which would keep that utility. It's a problem in need of a solution, a sci-fi envisioned solution such as that seen in Strange Days or Total Recall would probably be of some interest, at least to me.

Grandchild - I feel like I should feel older now that I'm technically a grandfather and I keep waiting for it to arrive but never feeling like it has. I guess it's not dissimilar to the feelings I had when turning 21 and feeling like I should feel like an adult but not really feeling any different than 16 or 18 or 20.. Maybe it's just me.

Counseling - I haven't seen my VA counselor for about a month now, due to scheduling issues, vacations etc and even our family counselor was out last week, so the opportunities for professional release have been few. (That just sounds wrong doesn't it, like I'm visiting a lady of the night or something.) I've heard some people use their writing to release pent-up stresses and emotions, to me it seems like that's just asking for someone to infer something incorrectly and just add to the whole stress scene. Then again, I am bothering to spend the time writing these blog entries, which have yet to see even a single visitor, at least according to Google Analytics, so I had better hope there is some sort of therapeutic benefit or I'm sure wasting a lot of time. Some people would probably be better off keeping their thoughts to themself I'm sure, maybe I fit into that category.

But hey, I could be wrong.

Today's post brought to you by Lenny, Doug and the letter...

-Z