Mortaine’s Blog

So, last night was apparently a “textbook” supercell out here– two tornadoes within 15 minutes of each other. We had small children and 6 adults cramming into a laundry room and a mud room to be safe and sheltered. Wheee!

The menfolk avoided all responsibility for comforting the children by standing outside and staring at the storm and rain. After sunset, they were using lightning to watch for funnel clouds. This was John’s first tornado emergency (last night parts of Cameron were hit); I think he had fun, all things considered.

Afterwards, we put all the kids to bed (the Bertucci’s had all fallen asleep, except Jake, who is 11), and I taught Jake and his mom Barb how to play Fluxx. It was actually a good way to calm things down after so much excitement.

Today is my long run– think I should do that before breakfast, but we’ve barely eaten on this trip at all (except lunch yesterday, which was huge), so it might be prudent to eat so I don’t get sick.

Oh, and sorry for the garbledness of yesterday’s phone post. I was, after all, posting from the eye of the storm, so to speak.

The fundraising letters are done. Everyone needs to ignore the typo, which I only discovered after I had printed 90 copies of the letter. Gleep!

Yes, the letter is personalized in the sense that it has the addressee’s name and address on it, but frankly, I had to do 90 of these things, so I didn’t handwrite them. I did put little notes on some of them, though.

Next week: Letters for co-workers, do the email version for people I don’t have snail-mail addresses for (like the NaNos and all you lovelies on LiveJournal, FLY group, etc.)

Today is yoga at noon. Then John’s coming at 2:30 so we can catch our flight. I have to change the fish’s water and feed him before I go.

So, I realized last night and this morning that I couldn’t find my TNT folder. It only has EVERYTHING related to the TNT program and training. Eep.

But I tracked it down by calling every place I’d been since Monday night, and found that I had left it in the rental car from Tuesday. Gah. So I will be going to Honda to pick it up. Whee.

Work is kind of sucking right now, but only because of my own crap, not because of crap here at work. I’m just frickin’ unmotivated, which is all my own fault.

Sigh.

Um, Zoot is doing well, at least. He flares at me when I come in in the mornings, as if to say “Hey! It’s you again! Feed me!” Um. He flares at me throughout the day. Probably for the same message. Water change tomorrow– his ammonia alert tells me it’s been a week and the toxins are building up. I did get him to eat the pellets finally.

Had nice dreams about hanging out with Hammer. Aww. Probably predicated by hanging out with him while watching Idol last night. Yes, I realize it’s bizarre, but my husband really got hooked on it this season. I liked John (the swing singer), though I didn’t think he should win, and Fantasia, who is a really good singer, despite being on Idol. I will definitely buy her album when it comes out. Even if she had lost early, she would have been offered a contract fairly quickly– they kept saying she could get a record deal the next day if she wanted one.

I am also watching WB’s Superstar USA this summer, which is like watching a train wreck.

Writing is not going, because I have been working on my fundraising letter and working out, which takes a fuck lot of time. However. I worked out yesterday with the coach clinic and I DID EVERYTHING!!! I didn’t do it fast, but I did it all, including some of the optional “gym without a gym” workout stuff he was showing us (the core building workout is so very hard for me because my core is so weak, and those things rely on body weight– mine is too high for my core muscles to train against).

So, this week, two particularly disturbing pieces of information have come to my awareness. I’ve been thinking about them and decided to share my thoughts with you. It’s rare that I actually post Substance, so enjoy it while it’s here.
The first is about the draft. I know many people will have linked to this article and related articles (Senate bill, US House Bill– thanks for the links and for bringing my attention to this issue).

First, it’s a dangerous thing to do. Part of the problem with the United States is that we are already mired in the military industrial complex. Making an individual’s indoctrination into that complex, even if one does not have to actively pursue service in a military role, is highly dangerous. Basic training is a form of brainwashing that encourages “recruits” to think alike and not question authority. Questioning authority is the most basic American right. It is the foundation for many of the Amendments to the Constitution, most importantly the Bill of Rights. Even though the training received after Basic is designed to propmote tactical thinking and military skills, the initial training is basically a method of wiping the slate clean and making everyone like everyone else.

I don’t want to live in a world where everyone is the same. I’d never be able to find my car in a parking lot.

Anyway, the logistical problem of forcing defense service on everyone is also a nightmare. The bill requires military service or service that is deemed in the interests of national defense, according to the President of the United States.

Now, I’m not a Constitutional lawyer, but it seems to me that putting every American citizen’s two-year career into the hands of one person is a bad idea. I mean, even if you think this President is great, you have to admit that we have had some real shlubs in office. And the determination of what is or is not in the interests of national security is so vague, it’s ripe for abuse. Someone sitting in an office pushing a pile of paperwork between defense contractors to cover up their greed is probably serving in the interest of national defense– if they’re white and rich, certainly– whereas someone teaching impoverished Texas border kids how to read and be good citizens is probably not, even though the Texas schoolteacher is actually providing a valuable service in training future residents of our second largest land border area. The cover-up guy is going to fulfill their mandatory military service. The border teacher is going to have their education or work suspended for 2 years so they can go risk death in a foreign country.

This would probably not even be an issue, incidentally, if we didn’t have a nasty habit of starting wars on multiple fronts. Sorry, but can we PLEASE learn from Napoleon and Hitler? And just about everyone else who has ever tried that tactic? It. Does. Not. Work.

Finally, let’s address the whole reason for the draft. The draft exists because we do not have enough soldiers to fulfill the tasks our military wishes to complete. How is it possible that we have so few soldiers, when unemployment is so high? How does that happen? After all, unemployment is hitting pretty hard in the younger crowd, as people with PhDs and 15 years of experience are taking shit-pay entry-level jobs just to stay employed. So, how come this group isn’t signing up to serve in the military? It’s a guaranteed paycheck with benefits, job training, and the best relocation assistance in the world. The fact is, the military is fucking their employees hard right now by increasing the amount of time they spend in the field (think of it as taking away your vacation and weekends) and gutting the benefits, and for a highly hazardous job. People don’t want to join the military because being unemployed is a better gig than going into the military.

So, if every American has to serve in the military, will the budget suddenly expand to pay for them? Sure– but not enough to provide for adequate working conditions and pay. After all, these are “employees” who can’t quit. They don’t have a choice. They HAVE to be there. They won’t be allowed to go anywhere else unless their owners“employers” decide to transfer them.

The draft is nothing more than state-mandated indentured servitude. It’s not acceptable.

The second item was from a User Friendly Link of the Day: Life After the Oil Crash. This page, and its related pages, scared the bejeebus out of me, I swear. I started thinking about all the possibilities of life without petroleum and petroleum products. It’s pretty scary shit, you know. I scared myself so bad, I started talking to John about it, what kind of plan we should make, what we should do, should we move, etc. I think he got annoyed because I started to sound like his mom. Whoops.

Anyway, he brought me some comfort in reminding me that hemp is a good replacement for oil. It can be used as fuel– in fact, it can replace gas in a deisel engine without any special conversion techniques required. It’s excellent for rope, clothes, even building material. It can be altered into a petroleum-like replacement. Aside from getting a battery for our solar panels, so we can power the house even without the grid, we are probably in pretty good shape.

Also there’s an algae that does the same thing, but of course it’s not as sexy as hemp.

Oh, and John mentioned buying a gun, so he can exercise all of his Bill of Rights and for protection in the post-crash world (except, of course, for the fact that GUNS NEED OIL!)