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(no subject) [Nov. 7th, 2009|09:48 am]

jesuisgringoire
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Tree. "Laws" of sermon preparation. [Nov. 7th, 2009|09:16 am]

seraphimsigrist
Friends,
I will be in the City today, going to the Kandinsky exhibit
at the Guggenheim(the round building up the side of which
Will Smith pursues and alien in Men in Black). Write a
draft for the sermon on St Michael Archangel for tomorrow. It
is a unique situation ,for a complex topic, in which I will break
my second rule of homiletics. "time of preparation should not
exceed time of delivery" Indeed if I were to speak longer than
the time of preparation ,people would have to bring box lunches
and perhaps even suppers or sleeping bags. It will likely prove
my first rule "no sermon is too short" although I am trying to
hone it to within 15 minutes and a 20 maximum. further items
pressed in include the medieval and contemporary world views
as complementary...add the sense of angelic height to Freeman
Dyson's "infinite in all directions". Gimpel the fool saying
this world is only an interval removed from reality...and
the early eastern sense of Michael, after Christ, as healer...
My third rule of homiletics is to remember that you are speaking
and the hearers not replying so do not harrangue and say only
what you would in a dialogue. I hope not to break this rule.
As for that matter one tries not to do in journaling...
the first two laws, for the literal minded, are half serious
the third fully.

Looking at Reznikoff's "Testimony" a poetic meditation of
court records from 1885-1890 in the Unites States. As sad
and terrifying as I suppose such a collection today would be...

Here for today to share is just a tree...yesterday.

and I am yours welcoming as always all response, "a little song,
a little dance, a little seltzer on the pants" as we say in
the trade, all welcome, yours
+Seraphim
.
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(no subject) [Nov. 7th, 2009|08:24 am]

jesuisgringoire
[Current Music |Will Young - Home]

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Boiled Frog Syndrome: How perceptive are you? [Nov. 7th, 2009|06:30 am]

zephret

"If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, it will float there quite placidly. As the water gradually heats up, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death."
 
—Version of the story from Daniel Quinn's The Story of B





Boiled Frog Syndrome is the name given to an anecdotal metaphor which is meant to transmit a very powerful and wide reaching message; gradual changes often go unnoticed in slight incremental stages, whereas we may notice and object to them if they all occurred at once or we found ourselves suddenly at the end stage of a sequence of changes.
 
If you go from water that is cool to water that is scorching hot within a few seconds, there is no way in hell you couldn't feel what is going on. But what if you swam in the pool all day and it was slowly warmed up over a period of many hours? Your body would readjust accordingly and you may only have fleeting thoughts that you thought the water was a little cooler earlier on. But since the current temperature isn't unbearable and you didn't experience any discomforting transition, you're happy to keep swimming away in that pool.

Let me give you a very striking, almost terrifying, real world example of this metaphor. If you woke up tomorrow morning and all of a sudden your country's government announced that cash would no longer be accepted anywhere, that you must get a chip implanted into your wrist which would have on it all your financial details and bank balance and that the only way to purchase goods and services would be to swipe your wrist-chip at government-sanctioned pay points.

Imagine the impact that this announcement would have upon the general populace of your country. Imagine how everybody would feel. Imagine how you would feel hearing this announcement. What do you think would happen? Would people accept this? Or would they revolt, refuse to comply, reconstitute their government and carry on with current methods of economic activity?

It's hard to prove that anything like this is definitely occurring, but it wouldn't altogether be outlandish for those who are perceptive and have an awareness of some of the many hidden agendas at play in the power struggles going on behind the world stage. If we are able to perceive some of the stages in development, we can make an educated estimate as to where we are headed.

Let's take a look at the technology of money and how we pay for things. We won't go too far back for this example, just far enough to understand the process. At one stage, a few decades ago, everything was mostly paid for in cash and also cheques, which were more convenient. When credit and debit cards were introduced, payments became much faster and simpler. Cheques slowly disappeared from common use and now you would have difficulty finding many places still willing to accept them.
Now, some cards are able to be touched onto a touch pad and small transactions can be automatically deducted from them without a PIN or signature. Similarly, some mobile/cell phone developers are introducing a method where you can have it store your bank account details in its memory and touch your mobile/cell phone to the touch pad to pay.
More and more people have one. It's difficult to find people who don't, at least in affluent Western countries. Mobile phones are also getting increasingly smaller, thinner, lighter.

At my old high school's canteen, they're introducing a biometric pay system where students will touch their finger on a reader and pay for their meals without the need for cash, each student having an account with the balance being topped up by parents over the internet. And perhaps not surprisingly, lo and behold, the notice on the door adds that all students will be required to sign up for this program and cash will no longer be accepted.

Imagine going back to a day in the '50s or '60s and telling those people that from the next day onward, they could no longer pay with cash and that they would have to give use their fingerprints connected to a centralised account system.

This is how we are moving into George Orwell's 1984 and hardly anybody seems worried about it. The changes are so gradual, so incremental, yet so frequent, they do not register in the waking consciousness of most people.

What else can the Boiled Frogs show us about what is happening in our world today, in many different areas such as health, diet, food ingredients in supermarkets, politics, policing, laws, news falsification by mainstream media, government control, globalisation and centralisation of power? Are you aware of what the Boiled Frogs are trying to tell you?




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what I saw about 9:30 a.m. [Nov. 6th, 2009|03:22 pm]

girlfagpnw
This morning's memorial procession for Seattle's slain policer officer, Timothy Brenton, began at UW, down Montlake to 23rd, up E Madison, down to Pine, Broadway, Denny and to Key Arena. Although it was my day off, I went into the office for a few hours and happened to catch this as it went past our building. It took over a half hour...hundreds of law enforcement vehicles. I noticed some were from Idaho, various parts of British Columbia, Eugene Or and even Missoula, MT.

Honestly, it was a poignant experience. My eyes filled with tears. People had lined up on the street, creating an environment of hushed respect. There was even a certain Buddhist priest I know, in his robes, standing on the next corner in a prayerful state.

Overnight, into this morning the weather was wild. We had hail, very high winds, pelting rains and even the rare Seattle thunderstorm. Oddly, just before the procession began the skies lightened, the rain stopped and the sun even came out for a bit.

It was a surreal morning.





P.S. if anyone wants to bitch about an excessive display, please take it somewhere else. I don't have the patience for it today. I myself am holding conflicting feelings. There is some uncomfortableness alongside great empathy for not only the family but for Officer Sweeney, a rookie and partner of the slain officer, who was sitting next to Officer Brenton and was shot as well. So...I'm just going to let it all exist together.

Surreal indeed.
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Vanya cat, yet again [Nov. 6th, 2009|12:12 pm]

barbarakelley
It is a momentous day. The last unconquered heights in my home have been scaled by the adventure kitties. They have been looking at it for a week or so and planning, and finally they have made the leap: to the very top of the floor to (almost) ceiling cabinet that serves as my kitchen cupboards.

I have several big gallon sized glass jars sitting up there. Thankfully, they didn't come down, but now that they are within kitty territory, I suppose I ought to move them. The various assorted smaller things I'd put up there to keep them out of reach did come down. One was the air freshener--a small jar of perfumed oil with reeds stuck into it to diffuse the scent. It had stopped diffusing, and so I had thought it was empty, but it wasn't.

I have to keep the next day's goose water inside at night now, so that it doesn't freeze. I've taken to putting the goose bucket right in front of the cabinet to keep the cats from opening the doors and getting into it. The air freshener landed right in the full bucket of water--despoiling it all. I had to start the day by making a trip to the well.

I got my own, though. I know the cats will never make the connection between wasted water, spilled air freshener and the knob on the cabinet in the bedroom, but I had to do it for revenge. I took the knob off the medicine cabinet door so Vanya can't open it anymore. He tried, right after I took it off, and it wouldn't work. He actually cried (not tears, of course, just yowls) and I felt really bad. But I left it off.

I wonder how many rinsings, and how long it will take before the heavily scented goose bucket will be useable again?
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Kandinsky shows us "A THING OR TWO"+What are they saying about Archangels?+More Late Autumn. [Nov. 6th, 2009|10:55 am]

seraphimsigrist
Friends,
I think we had enough on the Archangel Michael yesterday to
last a while. It is not a topic you hear discussed much on
the street or in pubs or salons is it? However it is there
if anyone is interested. well I will add one thought that
the old image of the world in its spheres rising in height on
height is of course quite different from the contemporary myth
(=model) in which it extends endlessly like a level sea to a
horizon lost in the mist. I expect the sense of the Angelicals
we have to the extent we are within one world image or another
will differ. Klee's "Angel of the Future" in the userpic seems
rather between or outside either which may not be bad...

But there I go again.We would not wish to dwell on a somehow
esoteric topic here! Quelle Idee! as we say in the trade.

Right but here is a poem by the painter Wasilly Kandinsky
which I think you will like!
.
Notice how the border between what one sees and does not
see fades away as the fish descends....perhaps there are other
features of interest.

And here are more late Autumn leaves here today in the lower
Hudson ValleyRead more... )
And as always I invite your response on these or on anything
else at all, yours
+Seraphim
.
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(no subject) [Nov. 5th, 2009|05:15 pm]

jesuisgringoire
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(no subject) [Nov. 5th, 2009|05:10 pm]

jesuisgringoire
[Current Music |Savage Garden - To The Moon And Back]

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a relapse [Nov. 5th, 2009|12:49 pm]

barbarakelley
We had a relapse this morning--into kitty mischief. It wasn't bad--Vanya just scuffled in the cabinet where the toilet paper is stored, alarming me out of my rest with visions of the whole front room being covered with disemboweled toilet paper. That is a specialty of my cats--killing and dismembering any TP and paper towel rolls they can get ahold of. Needless to say, I jumped right out of bed to get him out of the cupboard. I have a brand new, barely opened twelve pack stored away in there; don't want to risk that.

I couldn't get to sleep last night until about four AM, so I was not too cheerful at eight. I moved the goose water bucket over in front of the kitchen cupboard, so that he couldn't get it open. I let the geese out, did the usual morning things, and then went back to bed. The kitties were cooperative then.

When I got up later, I found a pair of socks dumped into the goose bucket. I had draped them near the heater to dry, checked them yesterday and thought they were dry enough to put away. I folded them, set them on the table on my way somewhere, and then forgot about them. This morning, they were in the drink. I took them out, wrung them out (the geese will never know there is sock water in their bucket) and hung them back out.

I thought I had cured the kitties of their mischief--or rather that they were cured. I didn't do anything fancy, I just opened a new bag of cat food, and surprisingly, delightfully, blessedly, magically-- the kitties were transformed! They were good the next morning. And the morning after. And the next morning too! I'd decided that it must have been culinary discontent all along, or maybe food additives causing behavior problems, and that the problem was solved. All I had to do was avoid the big bags of cheap catfood, and all would be well.

But it seems not.

Maybe they were just getting even with me, for keeping them up late last night.

I didn't mean to, honest. I think it was the vitamin D. I had been out for awhile and so hadn't taken any in awhile. I jumped right in at the level I'd been taken before, and I did not go to sleep that night. This morning I took a little less, and I will work up to taking the full dose.

I was cheerful, though, and that is what I take the vitamin D for, and so I won't complain about a lost night's sleep. It'll all come right in the end.

But I will try to let the kitties get to bed a little earlier tonight, so that we'll get along better tomorrow morning.
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terry gilliams top 50 animated movies of all time [Nov. 5th, 2009|02:29 pm]

animation

[hairypolack]
terry gilliams top 50 animated movies of all time

http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/10/07/terry-gilliams-top-50-animated-movies-of-all-time/


1. My Neighbour Totoro (1988) Hayao Miyazaki
2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) David Hand
3. The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979) Chuck Jones and Phil Monroe
4. Fantasia (1940)
5. Toy Story (1995) John Lasseter
6. Spirited Away (2001) Hayao Miyazaki
7. Yellow Submarine (1968) George Dunning
8. Belleville Rendez-vouz (2003) Sylvain Chomet
9. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999) Trey Parker
10. Robin Hood (1973) Wolfgang Reitherman
11. Bambi (1942) David Hand
12. Grave of the Fireflies (1988) Isao Takahata
13. Dumbo (1941) Ben Sharpsteen
14. Gandahar (1988) René Laloux
15. The Iron Giant (1999) Brad Bird
16. Akira (1988) Katsuhiro Ôtomo
17. The Brave Little Toaster (1987) Jerry Rees
18. The Jungle Book (1967) Wolfgang Reitherman
19. When the Wind Blows (1988) Jimmy T Murakami
20. Pinocchio (1940) Hamilton Luske & Ben Sharpsteen

I havent seen all of these. I think Toy STory 2 is better than the first one. South Park?!?!?!?! Its very funny but hardly an animated masterpiece. then again- its cut out animation style is vaguely similar to Gilliiams Monty Python cartoons. I love The Iron Giant and The Brave Little Toaster.

The Jungle Book?!?! One of Disneys lesser features.

Your choices?
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Leaves. + "Seeing" by Kandinsky +" Michael's Sword" by me. [Nov. 5th, 2009|11:14 am]

seraphimsigrist
Friends,
The leaves become fewer and yet the remaining ones
against a sparer background have their own fragile
beauty... Here is a picture from this morning in which
we can see each leaf in a way we could not when there
were more, as if the whole were a mobile hanging
in space.
I am trying to think about three difficult things at
once and it is too much. So I put aside the book
"Menorah for Athena" which I have on interlibrary loan
about the relation of Charles Reznikoff to his Judaism.
It seems, in the triage of things, more than I need to
know on the subject.
Secondly my little unit on Kandinsky, have several open
books as it were. But I am not spending enough time
with them to take in much especially given my lack
of background in art. Still I like his poems in
Sounds and here is one with its illustration,
the Kandinsky poem Seeing if you will Read more... )
Thirdly thinking, for this Sunday ,about St Michael and
All Angels. After those of yesterday and the day before
a further coordinate for thinking about MichaelRead more... )
These today quite various, Perhaps you will find even some
parallel between Kandinsky's poem and its rising from the
'gloom' and St Michael as we set it out. Of course anything
in a sense parallels anything, but Kandinsky's work is always
a spiritual journey too... and here are our leaves remaining
and floating in the air like a mobile and as always welcome
all you have on these or any other, yours
+Seraphim
.
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(no subject) [Nov. 5th, 2009|06:34 am]

girlfagpnw


Noodle with doodles...





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Becoming Friends with Quetzalcoatl and a Book Report [Nov. 4th, 2009|11:12 pm]

purple_mark
[Current Music |Genesis, Ships, Suba]

The Book had been stuck for awhile there, but the past two days have been rewarding in that I have been having a long involved conversation with Quetzalcoatl that has gotten a bit heavy, but afterwards is the beginning of a friendship between Que and Ash/Oros. I've realized that there is a definite gay subtext going on in this Book, which has some interesting Jungian and possibly Freudian things creeping in.  I've included an actual spell that i've used to turn slightly fermented orange juice to chocolate, at least ester-wise.i.e. taste.

I went to Bailey Coy because it is closing at the end of the month and got a book for Carolyn (Her Birthday's tomorrow) and another Lovecraftian Collection for me, just because.  It's fun, if not homework for me considering my book's subject matter.  But my reading of books has dropped to only a few a year since I have been working on my own books.  It's both good and bad, because I have a stack of books that I would like to be reading but 'The Gaudi Key' has not been engaging me the way I hoped it would.  I'm on page 304 out of 367 total pages. Nearly there, but the gruesomeness factor is a bit too high to merrily sail through this one.  
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Archaeology and eBay [Nov. 4th, 2009|07:35 pm]

ancientamericas

[rrocks1241]
 

 Hi! I'm taking an archaeological ethics course and I'm doing a research project on the effects of eBay and online markets on archaeological sites and artifacts. I have created a really quick survey and if you could take it, it would really help me out! Thanks so much! 
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=oR4ppCPNbjPOn_2fjdUDTCgA_3d_3d

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the little man [Nov. 4th, 2009|12:32 pm]

barbarakelley
I have a dilemma. I have a piece of worn out gum that I really, really want to get rid of. It is a strong mint flavor, and I am so tired of it that it is almost making me sick.

I don't have paper to wrap it in, but that is a minor problem. You can throw gum away unwrapped, you just have to make sure it doesn't stick to anything on the way into the trash. That is possible, so the lack of a scrap of paper isn't the problem.

The problem is that there is a little man who lives in the garbage can here.

I'm in the back of the library, on my little computer where I can look out the back window and watch the birds at the bird feeder. There is a nice computer desk here, and just and arm's reach away there is a hole in the desk top with a waste paper basket underneath. It would be the simplest thing in the world to just reach over and drop the gum in and be done with it.

Except for the little man. I wouldn't want to get gum on him; it would be disrespectful. He would never be the same.

I know, logically, that it only a drawing. It is not a real little man. Someone drew, for whatever reason, a striking smiley face on a piece of paper and then threw it away. It is big--making use of the full sheet of paper. Just slightly smaller than a human face would be.

It is a simple drawing--just eyes, nose and lips. And it must not have been what they wanted, since they threw it away. I wonder what they were drawing smiley faces for. It is on the top of a stack of papers. I wonder if he has a wife and children in there with him.

I shouldn't make so much of it; he is just someone's garbage. Something tossed away. The person who put him in there has probably long since forgotten about it.

That makes it even more poignant.

He has such a nicely drawn and expressive face. His eyes are friendly. He smiles up at me each time I check to see if he is still there. He's been there for more than a week---I assume he is still there today... yep, still there. I feel a little sheepish checking. I always peak furtively, afraid someone will see me looking to see if the little man is still there. It is only waste paper; it shouldn't matter.

But yet it is somehow satisfying to see him still there, gazing cheerfully up at the world. He doesn't seem to notice or mind that his world consists only of a trash can.

He must have a family. He couldn't be that happy alone in the garbage.

And so, silly as it is, I'm afraid I'll have to keep my gum in my mouth. How could I defile his countenance?

I think I'll be glad when the wastepaper basket finally gets emtied. Not only will I feel free to use it, then, but I will be glad for the little man. It will be good for him (and his presumed family) to go on an adventure. They will be bundled up nice and warm, and go off to the transfer station where they will probably meet other paper people (and the likes) for the first time. Famous people, maybe, if there happens to be a newspaper nearby. There will be plenty of food to eat (leftovers, of course, but they won't know) and eventually, when they get all the way to the landfill, there will be wildlife to view--bears, ravens and magpies mostly, but they are interesting. I myself am enjoying the magpies out the library window this very moment. Paper man will like them, too.

All in all, if he is as happy as he seems to be just living in a wastepaper basket in the Sutton library, he will be thrilled with an adventurous life in the landfill.

I will kind of miss him, though.

When I was here Monday I had this same problem, too. That day I just wrapped my gum in paper and took it home in my pocket and threw it away there.

I wish I had a scrap of paper.

I'm starting to eye some of the trashy paperbacks to the left of me a little bit differently... but no, they are still books in spite of their literary shortcomings. I can't bring myself to think of them as gum wrappers.

I see why it is that desks and chairs in public places come to have an accumulation of gum on their undersides. The reasons might vary--not everyone is looking out for the man in the trash can like I am, but each spot of gum wrongfully planted must represent a struggle with desperation, need and convenience.

I could just get up and go to the restroom I guess, and that would solve my dilemma, but I could just as easily... If no one were looking I oculd just... It wouldn't actually hurt anything... I could put it way underneath... no one would ever need to know...
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An Image From Ischia+ To Michaels [Nov. 4th, 2009|11:17 am]

seraphimsigrist
Friends,
I am burned out as a Yankee fan and was long ago, but
(like some believer whose practice has been set aside for
a time and who yet goes through a church door at Christmas)
I still like Andy Pettitte and so if the Yankees win tonight
with him pitching I will be happy. and if they lose I will
think of Alex Rodriquez.

Now here at the end of the post
is an image from [info]forioscribe,John
Palcewski, who lives on the isle of Ischia--multi talented
writer, critic, keen observer of life and not least
photographer. He posted today this image as a response
to ours of yesterday on the Angelicals and citing the
words which I put under it here.

It seems to me somehow that my little thought and this image
do resonate well to each other and it shows that livejournal
can really be a little creative and fun too.
Now I will say a couple more things about Angelicals, in
the runup to my sermon for St Michael's day on the Eastern
calendar this Sunday. They may be nonlinear a little and just
added coordinates to go with those yesterday. and finally
a greeting to all named Michael. If you
will click to the right hereRead more... )
Today these and as always I invite all your response and
am yours,
+Seraphim

.
""...ones own ideal self, that which one is
called to be, and draws to the ascent of the levels
of inner life..."
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Good article in this morning's Seattle Times [Nov. 4th, 2009|07:58 am]

girlfagpnw
I'm truly sorry for what happened in Maine. It is heart-breaking. And for us in WA State, it's still too close to tell. It's a long haul.

My coworker just sent around an article he saw this morning that gave me a sense of perspective.

From Right here, right now, history is incubating:

"The take-away: The gay-rights movement has won over to its side 10 to 12 percent of this state in the past dozen years.

That's about 1 percent per year. That may not seem like much. But
sweeping political change occurs when the center 5 or 10 percent shifts
to the other side"


Read the whole thing here.

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life imitating art [Nov. 3rd, 2009|01:25 pm]

barbarakelley
I have seen in the stores at this time of year, bells made from a mixture of suet and birdseed. The bell shape I thought was merely decorative--so that it would look festive, for the holidays, like a Christmas bell, hanging on the tree in the yard...

I have come to suspect, however, that birds actually prefer bells. The big round bag of suet that was hung out behind our library has fallen off the tree and is sitting on the ground. The birds don't seem to mind; in fact, they come in flocks now, whereas they used to be too timid to all eat from it at the same time when it was in the tree.

But back to the topic at hand: What shape do you suppose they have carved from their suet? A perfect bell.

So maybe the makings of birdseed bells really do know something about what birds like. Maybe they tested all the possible shapes for suet to be presented in, and it was that which the birds preferred.

And maybe these birds aren't coming in flocks because it is firmly on the ground. Maybe they actually like it better, now that it is bell shaped.

To find out, though, I would have to go out there in the cold and hang it back up.

Sounds too cold. I think I'll just sit here and speculate.

This is what I'm doing instead of working on my nano novel. You can tell--any time I post more than once in a day, likely there is something I am not doing.
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Dream of 11/03/09 [Nov. 3rd, 2009|01:13 pm]

purple_mark
[Current Music |Vangelis, Cibo Matto, Hector Zazou]

I was working at this Victorian Bed and Breakfast that was in the mountains of Cascadia today.  I guess everybody's posts about the Post Office filtered into my subconsciousness because I had to mail off a package the size of a pencil case.  While I was getting it all taped-up, this elderly couple who had been staying here came in and went about the process of Tea preparation. 

I would rather have a job like this one, than the one I have, although it's been mostly all right.  Last night, I had to guard the fresh cement that was being used to finally fix the floor.  Nonetheless, I had three oblivious customers step in it.  These weren't the customers that reeked of Crack.

The Book is at a standstill, which after other's posts about Nanowrimo is unsatisfactory.  I want some of that energy for myself! 
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