HA!
I updated my blog! you're surprised. I can tell.

i made an error. I was driving my car for a year without having gotten it inspected.
it was bad of me, and i got pulled over for it in a crackdown on uninspected vehicles in a town adjacent to mine. the good news? they inspected my vehicle right there. the bad news? my insurance policy had turned over, 3 days prior and I had forgotten to put the new insurance card in my car, leading to a failure to display an insurance card Ticket.

the police were respectful, and insistent that i bring my insurance card to court and they informed me as to exactly how I would go about that. they then informed me that I would have to pay court fees, and the prosecutor would dismiss the charges. In now way did I feel mislead, or under-informed. I was a fool, and they were helping me out of a jam.

fast forward to the day after my birthday, and a trip to court. I was the first one in, even before the prosecutor. I was dressed UP. slacks, button down shirt, shiny shoes, black socks w/ grey stripes... all for a good impression. a few offenders trickle in, then the prosecutor. She announces that we should all check in with her, and the 10 or so of us get in line and we basically speak with her about the disposition of our cases. She gets to me, and is surprised... SURPRISED that I actually have my valid insurance card with me, I'm not offended, but I take it as a sign of how bad things must be for her, if she expects defendants to generally NOT prepare for their court dates.

i sit down and await the judge, who arrives late, and ramps up to speed with alarming velocity. He never trips over 1 word, but he runs through his sentences as if he's running a marathon, which... I guess he is, having looked around the entire courtroom. He is a little difficult to hear, so my eyes are riveted to his mouth... i can read lips. Several times he stops the proceedings and insists on quiet from the audience... One time he just sat there and stared at a mother who refused to recognize that her child was about to get her thrown into jail. I felt like I was in 1st grade, except in MY first grade, we were all respectful... when the teacher said be quiet, you knew she was a nun, and that she had rulers.

Many of the defendants, like me had minor infractions. A few even got their cases dismissed and only had to pay the court costs. but everybody else owed the court costs, PLUS whatever fine the judge and the prosecutor agree upon. This sounds unfair, like assuming guilt instead of innocence, but for the most part police were there and they had witnessed every one of the infractions, and they were simply "not in dispute". So the prosecutor usually let you plead to a lesser charge in every instance. it wasn't necessary, but the court actually seemed to try to keep as many of the defendants out of trouble as possible.

a few individuals however, always managed to screw up. One gentleman, received moving violations going back 5 years, which he flatly "forgot" to pay. He remembered really quickly when they showed up at his house with a warrant, and took him to jail.

Another gentleman, having a minor infraction somehow irritated the police officer so much that he got his license suspended and then... got pulled over for speeding While his license was suspended. He spent 10 minutes trying to Con the judge, he had numerous excuses for not paying fines, driving while suspended, and why he Missed his first court date. the judge spent an average of 1 minute per case, he was insanely annoyed by this gentleman, but he listened, and dismissed every excuse out of hand.



the coup de gras, was a 17 year old moron, dressed in shorts that came down to his ankles, a nasty tee shirt, and accompanied by a Much younger girlfriend who was dressed even worse. He was caught shoplifting pepto bysmol from the local drug store. he made a racket from the beginning to the end of proceedings, was near tears and obviously frustrated. the judge pointed out that he had to pay something like $1500 plus the court fees, due to mandatory fines. when the judge asked him why he did it, he blamed drugs, the judge credited him with at least being honest. The kid left distraught.

When it was almost my turn... unfortunately the stack of defendants was in the opposite order of arrival, so I was one of the last cases to be heard... I realized that all of these grifters, and malcontents, were waiting in line to try to NOT pay their fines.

I then waited in line for about 45 minutes, as abusive individuals tried to cheat the system. cheating the system costs more time than just doing the right thing. The shoplifter was by far the worst, whining about how he had to leave, and that he had NO money at all, complaining that Nobody told him He'd have to pay a fine, railing against the unfairness of the judge (since he was out of earshot), for imposing the fines. He actually left 2 times, only to come back at the insistence of his girlfriend, and set up a payment plan based on his weekly allowance... $40.

it was all I could do to NOT grab him and throw him down a convenient flight of stairs.

I read a synopsis of bush's speech.
my reaction was twofold:

reduce gas consumption? That F#(<@$! I want to strangle him! he's feeding us the stuff that we've been screaming for, and TAKING F"ING CREDIT FOR IT!!!! GODAMMIT!


oh ho! oh ho! now I see it! you want to turn MY health benefits, benefits that go up an average of 15% a year... you want to turn them into TAXABLE INCOME????!!?!?!!?!? you MUTHER...F- everybody wonders where you think your getting your deficit fillers from... YOU THINK YOU"ERE GETTING IT FROM ME!!! Holy shit you've got nerve!


Bush is a parrot. the people running his show, they want to separate middle class, and lower class, from every red cent they make. They want to do it in the guise of making life better, safer, cleaner.

So far, emissions are up after bush promised lower emissions. we spent 300 billion in dollars and an incalculable amount in blood, so george's cronies could corner the market in oil. Murder is up, education is down (leave no child behind, george, leave no child behind).
Every promise broken, every law sidestepped, every word worth the toilet paper it was written on.

Bush didn't tell us the state of the union, he told us a trumped up set of half truths, and outright lies. Here's the state of the union... we're fucked. George did it, hes got 2 years to finish the job, and hes got a big fist full of sand.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/01/02/ufo.sighting.ap/index.html

synopsis: nov. 7th, multiple individuals (including pilots) reported seeing a flying saucer above a terminal at Ohare Intl airport.
The FAA reports that it was a freakish weather pattern that apparently hovered over the terminal and then Shot up through the clouds.

my freaking head is pounding, I'm winded (as nana would say), my throat is revolting (i know I know), and I feel like I will never be comfortable ever again.

its either a cold or an xmas elf has taken up residence in my sinus cavity.

well at least I still have my sense of humor (poor consolation).

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/10/25/jersey.samesex.ap/index.html

same sex marriage ok in NJ!
some people would think that this is a religious, or gay issue. Its not. Its a personal rights vs corporate interests issue, its a collapsing economy issue, its the base of everything we take for granted, leaning over the edge.

there are an ungodly amount of people in Washington (and every state captial), who make a whole LOT of money by telling our lawmakers what to vote for. These people are paid by corporate entities. This is why there is corruption, in Washington. Because corporations have inserted themselves between the lines of the almighty phrase "and that government of the people, by the people, for the people". Now corporate entities are having laws drawn up that stave off competition, repeal laws that were in their way, Take away our personal civil liberties, make it easier to strip the wealth of this great nation from the individuals who live here.

And thats how we arrived at gay rights. The issue is not one of recognizing gay couples, but rather paying them. For years now, there has been a push by corporate entities, to keep more money as profit and give less to the workers. pensions dry up, changing to 401Ks (which is not guaranteed money), jobs are eliminated, and replaced with cheaper labor, health benefits have been chopped off completely (forcing that industy to increase prices, starting a massive shift into unprofitability). And the whole time the silver lining for the upper managers, has scaled up, making it MORE likey the trend will continue. And so, the upper level managers (aka: the man) tells his lobby-er, to spend money on our lawmakers and convince them that they don't want to offer benefits to anyone not working for them. Health benefits, survivor benefits (in case of accidental death) pensions, etc... and so Our lobby-ers, start with the fringe lifestyles. they don't want to be required to offer these services, saying things like "too expensive, too costly" while wearing armani suits and passing out expensive cuban cigars while on a weekend golf trip in Scotland. And senators, congressmen... Lawmakers, agree to do their bidding. Meanwhile the rich get richer, and the poor slowly and surely wind up paying for everything.

The lawmakers Know that they can't sell "corporations want to pay you less and leave you hanging on everything... medical, retirement, and inflation." so they come up with hacks... the gays for instance, "Nobody should be forced to support an abomination against nature." now thats a great slogan. Brings back other successful ventures: the KKK, Hitler and his buddies, mel Gibson, the crusades, and the Inquisition, and lets not forget: Taxation without representation. Because thats what this is all about.

Laws are being made without any thought given to how it will impact individuals. There is no wording in the constitution about the rights of a corporate entity, they are asserting the privilege, afforded them by cold hard cash they have siphoned from us over the years, of making the laws suit their purposes.

I congratulate New Jersey for Not doing anything. They have yet to get to the issue but I congratulate them in this environment for not cashing in. That in itself is amazing. Now all I want is Some representation in my government. Recognize alternative family units, and begin treating them the same as any other family unit.

i love halloween. and because I love halloween, I am watching scary movies. Lately I haven't been in the mood for scary movies, and I'm NOT a big fan of zombie movies. Theres something gross+unimaginitive+repetitive about them. so when Dawn of the dead (2004, starring Ving Rhames) came on to television, I watched it. I told you, I love halloween. And I'm not going to give you a review.
it F'ed me up. Scary movies should F you up. I'm going to bed tonight, looking over my shoulders, and I'm going to wake up, feeling like I lived a week being chased by zombies.

next I think I'll re-watch Sean of the dead. I Loved that movie. But I also have the Thing (collectors ed.), night of the living dead (classic collectors ed.), city of lost children, underworld (I and II) and Nightmare before xmas. I'm no big movie collector, but I love me some halloween.

-eb

dig it!

http://web.mac.com/eblu/iWeb/making%20a%20home/home%20builders/home%20builders.html

the new part... in the top menu, click on the photos link.

life is a garden!

-eb

lets start out with: I have awesome friends. without them this story would have a bad ending. samiraquai, wrylab, dawnimitzu, and big bad rad brad the "gwb" made my day, two days in a row now!

anyway, the drip.
close your eyes, and imagine... no wait. can't read with your eyes closed. just read along with me and picture a slightly translucent version of this in the back of your head. That way you can still follow the words. yeah.

My house is uhhhh... a fixer-upper. I had stored most of my sensitive stuff, books, electronics, etc... in a small room on the back of the house. in boxes, and plastic bins. Over the last 10 months or so, I've sort of lived out of those boxes, so many of the boxes were open, especially the plastic bins. I had these boxes in the back because the space was not productive, and safe from any potential messes. But in the end, keeping all of this stuff together was not a good idea.

the room itself... are you trying to picture this? with the milky translucent thing? just checking. The room was bad 80's wood paneling. This is a crucial detail. If it was drywall, especially on the ceiling, we wouldn't have been able to build up critical mass. so apparently... there was/is (maybe) a leak in my roof. but... as this part of my house is an addition (poorly added at that) the water traveled slowly and in a circuitous route. it first came in through the roof at the base of a loose nail between two shingles. Then it ran into the attic, and pooled a bit in what used to be the eaves of the original roof. Then it came through a small hole, and fell on top of the paneling that was almost expertly applied to the ceiling of the back room. the water pooled in the middle of one panel. an 8 foot by 6 foot panel. Over the course of months... potentially, a little water found its way into that pool. and a pool it was. the weight of the water bowed the panel, but the panel itself was well hung (pause for snickers), and it could hold a great deal of weight. As it wasn't drywall... no leaks developed.

kinetic energy built (gravity versus the weight of the increasing mass of the water), and once in a while water leaked out. nothing i noticed, but I did find evidence of it during cleanup. This was an ongoing process.

saturday morning, 8 am. I am dressed to the eights (not quite the nines), I am on my way to my cousin's casual wedding, and I look for a book I promised I'd lend to my aunt. so I go into the back room. I put my hand in one of the bins to search for the book, and another book comes up floppy, soggy and basically disintegrates in my hands. In this bin, is about 6 books, some very expensive speakers, and an inch of brown water.

take a moment to try to imagine your reaction. do it in a half transparent way ok?

my heart drops. I am immediately freaked out... where's the water coming from, when did it get here. I look up, and see no discernible source for the water. I am looking at the paneling. I look down, and realize that my problem may not be limited to just this bin!
furious motion... I take account. worst hit were the cardboard boxes filled with books. the loss was devastating to me. I couldn't look in some of them, I was seriously upset. these are books I grew up with, gifts, treasures, memories, a chain going back to my child hood, and telling stories that aren't just in the pages. some of them were slime by the time I found them.

I removed enough books so that I could get under the paneling on a ladder (step ladder for all of you following along).

note:
the previous owner left me a silly little crap black light, the kind you'd get from spencer gifts.

so I reach up to the hated black light, i hadn't gotten around to removing it yet. I gently grab it, and it comes out of the panel (the one with the puddle on top of it). it comes out like it was mounted to a sponge... and water pours out of the holes left behind... for 10 minutes.

never made it to the wedding. I ripped out that room instead. It was SO much fun to take down that one ceiling panel (that was sarcasm folks... sometimes it doesn't travel well in print, but there it is), somehow there was still a substantial amount of water on top of it.

and that was the story, as far as I knew.

Then two days ago, I received a package from amazon. full of books. and today I received a second box full of books.
wrylab let me know in advance that they were coming, when I emailed him to thank him, he told me everybody who was involved.

samiraquai, wrylab dawnimitzu, and big bad rad brad the gwb.
these guys all picked out some books they thought that I would like, should read, and loved themselves. and had them sent to me.
I have memories of talking about some of these books, I remember people suggesting some of them to me, i used to own 2 of them! I am floored by the thoughtfulness, and the individual selections that I have before me. I am excited to start chomping on all of them, and for the first time in a long time, I have a handful of new writers to try. I don't know how to thank you guys, or relate how much it means to me. I'm reminded of my relationships, and I have new toys, what more could I want?

and now for all the 3rd parties....
the kids like these books:
hyperion
boogiepop and others
coraline
the illuminatus trilogy
cat's cradle
the left hand of darkness
ender's game (lost in the flood, found in a box)
stranger in a strange land (lost in the flood, and found in a box) (both of these guys, I'll be reading again, very shortly.)

oh I forgot 2

house of leaves (get this book. the liner notes rock, the book looks awesome)
and the one I started this morning...
girl in the glass

guys this has been one of the best days I've had in a long time.
thanks.

so rock soup. its got nothing to do with this post.

I haven't been updating my blog too much lately. I haven't been doing much of anything lately. the words: work, deadlines, and the phrase "not enough time" have become the most important things in my life right now.
But... I have a house update.

today, we started putting the soffet up. a soffet, for those of you that are curious but not enlightened, is an embellishment on the basic shape of a room. consider the spot where the wall meets the ceiling. if you look at a cross section of this area, you'll see a simple ninety degree angle with the negative space of the room on the inside of the angle. I am putting a box, in that negative space. and in that box, I will put electrical, and lights, and possibly speaker wire.

so like i said, we started the process today. and to do so, we needed to pop some holes in the plaster wall we had previously decided to keep. well... lathe and plaster is a lot like a truss construction roof. If you remove some of the support, then chances are ALL of the support will fail. I sort of talk us into removing ALL of the lathe and plaster. and thats what we did today. we took out an entire wall. its an interior wall.

ummm. damn. we didn't get any of the soffet up did we? oh well, plaster is freaking heavy. I'm going to go clean the black powder out of my sinuses now.

today was a wedding day. My cousin's. It was a rather informal affair, and I Was looking forward to it. I was looking for a book that I promised that I'd lend to my aunt (the road to dune) and so I went where I was storing almost all of my worldly possessions, in boxes...

in the first box I looked I found a few books, my good computer speakers, and a half an inch of brown muddy water. it was a plastic container, but I had any number of cardboard boxes, other plastic containers, suitcases, all in some form of relative comfort... open and in disarray.

I immediately took stock, and found that most plastic containers were "closed" but at least 2 of them were wide open, taking on water, and NONE of them were designed to be water proof. I quickly called my parents, and let them know that my plans had just changed drastically. then I shuffled most of the boxes out of the way, and I brought a step ladder into the room to get a closer look at the ceiling. The previous residents kept an incandescent black light in this room, like the kind you could purchase at Spencers gifts. I reached up, and grabbed it, and it came right out of the ceiling as if it was anchored to a soggy sponge. And then, through the hole left behind... water began to pour out... for a half an hour. did I mention this was my ceiling?

i cut down parts of my tree, cleaned out my gutters, ripped out the ceiling, the walls, the flooring, dried as much of the stuff that I could save, reorganized the stuff that was in cardboard Into the plastic bins,

and lost about a 3rd of all of my books.

later i found the book I was looking for to give to my aunt, Not in the water room, but in my book case.

all in all, I did A LOT of manual labor today... and I am now further Behind in my war against the house.