The Way

The problem with trying to establish The Way is that going any way at all depends on where a person is and where that person wishes to go. Is there but one road, one bridge, one tunnel, suitable to the goals of each and every person? Can one road, one bridge, one tunnel get each and every person from where they are to where they wish to go? To suppose such for ordinary travel is blatantly absurd, as we can’t all be and aren’t all in one and the same place and heading for one and the same destination.

And yet, for the vastly more complex process of traveling from birth to death, there persists this idea that there can be only one Way. And while the case stated may suggest we all start from the same point and end at the same point, it isn’t nearly that simple. None of us share the same schedule, nor are we each blessed with precisely the same mental, physical, spiritual, educational, political and material resources for the journey—not at the start, not during the journey, and not at the end. No one life can be lived in exactly the same way as another, and no one Way will ever be sufficient to handle all the traffic.

Human history has demonstrated this more times than any sane person would care to count. Yet these demonstrations weigh like feathers on the consciences of those who insist that there is one Way and one Way only.  

So what is The Way? Depends…do you want get through life quick or take the scenic route?

Facebooking the World!

Discovered Facebook in the interim since my last posting, and have been going FB crazy! As a result this ol' blog's been kinda neglected. Then again, I can't say much has shifted in the world scene since my previous remarks, except to pretty much bear them out. Still, one can hope it's early yet, and that some things might start showing signs of turning around before the year's out.

Oh, and about Gemstone…I think we've seen the end of classic Disney comics in the US, at least for a while. Still doing some things for Egmont Creative, so I'm keeping my hand in with Disney comics as such, but it's still nothing like the heady days of Gladstone (especially Gladstone I, as everyone likes to call the first phase). Maybe things will turn around, but at the moment I can't summon much hope in that.

On the less grisly side, I've discovered two new authors (new to me, that is): Sherman Alexie and Diana Wynne Jones. The first is the first modern author I've read in ages, and the first American Indian writer I've ever read ever, while the latter does stuff that anyone going through Harry Potter withdrawal ought to like.

Up To Now

It's been very quiet these past several weeks, so I've had nothing to offer here of late. Oh sure, there's the new Prez, but what can I say that hasn't been said by bloggers far faster on their feet than I'll ever be. He's in, he's knucklin' down, he's bangin' his cabinet and agenda into shape, we'll see what happens.

The Market continues to blunder like a blind three-legged elephant towards some end that may be difficult to particularize but is bound to be anything but pretty. Meanwhile economic pundits lament the unwillingness of cash-strapped consumers to spend themselves into further ruin to keep this economy that has unabashedly betrayed them shored up. Did they not get the memo? Elvis has left that building, guys!

But hey, the Cardinals did a-okay against the Steelers yesterday, making it one Super Bowl I was glad I actually watched. And the hulu.com add with Alec Baldwin took the prize for best commercial bar none.

Well, now for a round of Pocket Tanks. Night.

My Favorite Pixars

My favorite Pixar films in order? I thought you'd never ask:

The Incredibles

Finding Nemo

Toy Story 2

Ratatouille

Wall-E

Toy Story

Monsters, Inc.

Cars does not appear on the list because that one just doesn't work for me. At all.

Things I'm thankful for (December 1st edition):

My wife

The freelance life

Our cat

Our guinea pig

The Brothers

Our decision some months back not to put all our dough in the market

Books

Things I'm not thankful for:

The continued absence of my Dad (who passed away in October of 2006)

The hijacking of my political party by idiots, gasbags and flagrant fiscal, social and religious hypocrites

The market crash

The cancellation of "Pushing Daisies"

Here's a picture of a Sea Harrier taking off from the deck of an amphibious assault ship. This is a variant of the plane that helped the British win the Falkland Islands skirmish back in the day.

This is the only VTOL (Vertical Take-Off and Landing) capable fixed-wing fighter in the Western inventory, and has been for several decades. Though it cannot reach supersonic speeds, it has served as an effective close-support weapon for the Navy and the Marines. Its special abilities make it ideal for amphibious operations, allowing it to operate from flight decks on many of the same ships that also transport and land Marines and their equipment. This largely negates the need for these landing forces to be accompanied by conventional carriers or to be within range of land air bases.

I'm posting this mainly to test the placement of images on my blog. And I think it's kinda pretty. 

Stop the Badness! Revisited

We've elected ourselves a new president, and I feel, right now, that maybe we, as a nation, have done something that could really make a difference. Sure, it's nice that Congress is also weighted to the new prez's party, but history – recent history, at that – has shown that's no guarantee of equanimity between the executive and the legislative. We'll just have to see how that plays out, but the fact remains that history has been made, a rubicon has been crossed, and maybe, if we're careful, we might, as a nation, make something that could genuinely be called progress.

Okay, so the markets didn't calm down after the election as much as I'd hoped…in fact, didn't calm down at all. I remain hopeful.

At least OPEC's latest ploy to keep oil prices above $100 a barrel didn't pan out. I don't imagine those folks will have to cry in their beer for long, but it's nice our pocketbooks get a little relief from the recent succession of hammer blows.