:: Ray's Periodic Rantings ::

:: Thursday, January 30, 2003 ::

Sport Night
Tonight it was "sport night" at Boy Scouts. I take the boy I mentor every other week, and two or three times a year they have a meeting where they just play games like dodgeball and kickball in the gym of the school where they meet. The dads, including me, get roped into playing, too.

Which isn't such a terrible thing. It is fun, in fact. I always sucked at any sport that involved a ball moving through the air, but was half decent at dodgeball because dodging came so much more instinctively than catching or throwing. As an adult I am a little bit better than I used to be, and nobody there takes it very seriously, so there is none of that self esteem stuff about how I suck that there was way back when. So I run around a bit and get a sore arm from throwing so many balls, and I enjoy doing it.

Plus, it turns out that schools no longer use those heavy inflated rubber balls for dodgball that they had when I was a kid. They have foam ones, now, which cuts down on smashed glasses and the like. A good thing, that.
:: Ray 11:01 PM [+] ::
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The stars were with me
Tonight I watched Tom Twyker's The Princess and the Warrior, and I liked it quite a bit. One of the characters is a young widower, who lost his wife suddenly in a violent accident. In medicine ways, we have a technique for healing known as soul retrieval. The idea is that at traumatic times in our lives, parts of us can get left behind or stuck. In a soul retrieval, the healer spiritually journeys for the person being healed, finds a missing part, and brings it back. In The Princess and the Warrior, the widower has his own experience something like this. Not only was it interesting to see the way this subject was handled, but having been through what I have been through, it seemed somehow significant to me in a way I am not entirely able to explain. Thank you to the person who recommended the film to me...I am grateful.

The Princess and the Warrior was also part of a very pleasant evening that included a tasty ham and muenster panini that I made for dinner, a nice drive down to the old neighborhood to the sounds of French electronica on college radio WNUR and, amazingly, rockstar parking in front of Earwax, where I went to return the film.
:: Ray 11:27 PM [+] ::
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Not so Bad
OK, so this morning I bundled up for temperatures that were again supposed be 3 below zero at O'Hare, not far from where I live, but warmer in the city. It was cold enough that the dusting of snow on the ground squeaked beneath my feet, almost like cheese curds (a Wisconsin thing) are supposed to when they are nice and fresh. But it didn't feel below zero, and I was (gasp) overdressed. Could it be that I am finally acclimating to winter?

Before I left the house, I heard this story on NPR about acts of kindness. The one that I really liked is in the audio but not the text. It is about a Jewish man who set up a farm supply store in Norfolk, VA in the thirties. One of the local klan ran also ran a farm supply store, and didn't like the competition, so he organized a boycott. A Mennonite farmer heard about this, after asking the Jewish storekeeper why he seemed distraught. Nothing further was said, but soon all the local Mennonite farmers began buying their supplies at the Jewish owned store, and the boycott was broken. This story lifted my heart, a bit -- enough to make my day, anyway.

Added 2:56PM Yesterday's Doonesbury is pretty scathing on the Bush adminstration's environmental record -- in a fun way!
:: Ray 1:25 PM [+] ::
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Cold
This morning I dressed like Nanook of the North for my walk to the train at 3 degrees below zero, 23 below, windchill. For my plethora of readers from outside the US, that translates to about 38 below zero and 46 below zero centigrade, respectively, by my very rough calculations. Ack.

Whatever temperature it is, it is cold enough that there are wisps and tendrils of fog blowing around just above the surface of the Chicago River. From where I sit, it almost looks like a constant stream of ghost snakes migrating out toward Lake Michigan.

I don't want to seem like I am harping on Salon comics this week, but there is another good one today. Tom the Dancing Bug features more adventures of "Judge Scalia!"
:: Ray 10:06 AM [+] ::
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WWJB?
Today's K Chronicles on Salon elicited a grin, and even a cheer from me. At the next peace rally here in Chicago, I just might carry one of those signs (assuming the temperature is higher than the single digits). I especially like, "Who would Jesus bomb?"

I am also pleased to announce that I have been scanning images at a furious pace. Burning Man '02 web page is finally in the works!
:: Ray 1:40 PM [+] ::
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Chocolate & Beef
This morning, as I walked from the train station to work, in what could be described as crisp, morning air (read: frickin' cold), I enjoyed the slightly odd juxtaposition of the smell of chocolate wafting over from the Blommer chocolate factory. For many years I have enjoyed finding myself occasionally downwind of their building, located just west of the River North area. Catching the sweet scent in the cold this morning, however, was a new twist on the experience, kind of like being teased by a big mug of hot chocolate that wasn't actually there.

In my latest food experiment, last night I ate a couple of big bowls of this beef stew after cooking up a batch on Sunday night. For my first attempt, ever, at beef stew, I was extremely pleased with the result. Yum! I will be adding this one to my cooking repetoire, and tinkering with the seasoning.

Today's This Modern World on Salon pokes at wealthy conservative pundits and how in touch they are with life in the heartland. Yeah.
:: Ray 1:49 PM [+] ::
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Warm & Cool
I have had a harried day at work, answering calls and seemingly not getting much done, but I was just walking back into my office, when the view caught my eye. I look East, out the canyon of buildings and the mouth of the Chicago River toward Lake Michigan. The sun is setting right now, and there is orange light on a breakwater, with both orange and blue reflections in the semi-frozen water. It is already fading, but as I walked into my office a few minutes ago, it was one of those views that made me say, "wow!"
:: Ray 4:42 PM [+] ::
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More Food
So I said I would say more about food. I am embarrassed to admit that despite my best intentions and reasonable kitchen skills, my diet has consisted of a fair amount of Stouffer's and takeout. In addition to not being particularly healthy and not tasting great, frozen foods use a lot of disposable packaging that waste resources and take up space in landfills. You may laugh, but think about a million plastic trays, each and every day. How much oil does it take to make them and how much space do they take up once they are discarded? How many individually sized servings of things do we need? Just how lazy are we?

Sunday I was inspired to do something about this. I cooked up a bunch of food, including some turkey burgers and the broccoli casserole from the 1/13/03 entry, and I bought things like yogurt and pudding and baby carrots in larger containers, not the individual ones. I was going to divide and pack all these things in my own, reusable containers, and bring them to work for lunch.

I was only partly successful. I have managed to bring and eat some items this week, but not everything I thought I would, and I have embellished with purchased lunches. The food that I brought has been good stuff, better than I would have had, otherwise. Things like fresh citrus fruit that I sectioned and sugared, the good brand (without all the nasty chemicals in the ingredients) of tapioca pudding with a few fresh blueberries sprinkled on top, home-cooked acorn squash with butter, brown sugar and ginger, are all preferable to stuff that would come prewrapped. The turkey burgers and casserole aren't going to waste, either -- I have been eating them for dinner.

OK, although this post isn't the most exciting I have ever written (certainly not as fun as ranting about Republicans), it is about what seems to me the beginning of a major shift in my relationship to food and consumption. I will probably revisit the topic every once in while, but only if I have something significant to say.

In the meantime, check out Tim Tripp, Time Traveler in yesterday's Tom the Dancing Bug on Salon. Very funny, if you are at all like me.
:: Ray 2:59 PM [+] ::
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Food and Politics
I tried cooking Alton Brown's (the Good Eats guy) broccoli casserole tonight. I was underwhelmed by the result. I mean, it was OK, but not great. And it uses such wierd ingredients that I am not sure what to do to tweak it. This is not the first time that this has occurred with his recipes. I tried his pot roast recipe a while back, and it came out tough and tasting overpoweringly of raisins, which were in there as "chunkies" (his term). There have been one or two others that I can't recall right at the moment.

I love his show. It is fun to watch, and I always learn interesting tidbits about the science of food. Among other things, I make better pancakes now, as a result. I am growing a bit gunshy about his recipes, though. Has anybody else out there had better luck?

More about food in the next entry.

On an unrelated note, in the car tonight, I heard the new Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, say that the Bush tax cut proposal was balanced for all Americans. I don't recall his exact words, but my reaction was to shout a few out loud that I don't care to repeat here. Just how is a tax cut that saves George Bush $16,511, Dick Cheney $104,823, and me about enough to go see a matinee movie, balanced? How about a temporary reduction in the payroll tax? THAT would be balanced. Want to check my figures, go see Joe Conason quoting Reuters. This is the same article that I linked to on 1/8/03.
:: Ray 1:06 AM [+] ::
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Vinyl
I reconfigured my stereo tonight to allow me to play record albums for the first time in almost two years. I have a fair collection of vinyl, and I like to add to it every once in a while. I even bought some at a Goodwill in Florida a couple of weeks ago (and hated myself for it when it was time to lug my suitcase home...records are heavy!).

I mention all this because I have been playing records tonight and getting a bit weepy -- not sad weepy, just emotional. Music can do that to me, sometimes from nostalgia, sometimes because it is just beautiful to listen to. I kind of like it when it happens. Among other things, crying reaffirms that I am alive. Two tracks did it for me tonight:
- ELO's Mr. Blue Sky, which recently resurfaced in a VW commercial (see the 12/27/02 entry) and I have always liked, was the first. It has a majestic quality to it, while also upbeat and airy.
- From a collection of stories for children that I bought in FL, Tubby the Tuba was the second. Do you remember it? Narrated by Jose Ferrer with an orchestral accompaniment, it is about a tuba who wants very badly to play the melody and not just the slow ooompah. I remember listening to it as a child many times, while looking at a poster of all the orchestra instruments and imagining the events as they were told. Such was entertainment for kids before the advent of home VCRs. Anyway, I don't think I have heard it for 25 years.

As I write this I am listening to another thrift store purchase, this one more likely to elicit laughs than anything else: it is a Tijuana brass band (not Herb Alpert) covering Beatles tunes. Let's just say that Ob La Di Ob La Da makes the transition much better than Hey Jude. There is a treasure trove of stuff like this out there, both good and bad, that will never make it to CD. Part of my mission in life is to find and preserve a bit of it.

On another note, this is the first entry I have written with Safari, Apple's new browser. For beta software, it kicks butt. It has already usurped Mozilla as my main browser. Mozilla becomes my backup browser, and I bid farewell to my former backup, Explorer (while shedding crocodile tears). For all you Windows folks out there, sorry, Safari is only for Mac OS X.
:: Ray 3:07 AM [+] ::
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Arrrrgh!
I can't think of any other word to express how I feel about the way things are developing with our fine president. How can you not be cynical about tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest Americans that don't need it (Bush and Cheney included – see Joe Conason's Journal in today's Salon), while simultaneously increasing deficits and debt, and having little to no effect as an economic stimulus? In the long run, that higher national debt could lead to higher interest rates...how is that for a clever way to goose the economy?

I have read and listened to a lot about George Bush. Increasingly I am realizing that he is not an idiot, and not even a bad guy, just tragically misguided, and perhaps too enamored of wealth and his wealthy friends. Unfortunately, all of us will pay the price.

And don't even get me started on civil and states' rights. Ack!
:: Ray 4:01 PM [+] ::
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Predawn Eye Candy
I am back in Chicago and it is nice to be home. The cats were happy to see me and the house is a bit messy. Tomorrow I am going to attempt a crockpot chicken cacciatore, which I hope the boy I mentor appreciates, although I would never pull a martyr trip or guilt him into eating it if he doesn't. Anyway, I dragged a digital camera with me to Florida and back, and I didn't take any pictures until the morning I flew home, on the way to the airport. I just didn't see anything that inspired me until I saw that fog over water in the predawn light. See for yourself.

:: Ray 12:54 AM [+] ::
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