Ollie-Ollie-Oxen-Freeeeeee!

Hey everyone, I made it home safe and sound. I slept last night on my own bed and it felt good. In fact, I slept on some wonderful new flannel sheets that Grammy gave me. Those are great sheets Grammy, thanks! The cats were very happy to see me and after a few minutes of disorientation they were purring at my feet again. The apartment isn't too bad since I cleaned before I left. I've been out walking all morning... I forgot how much I like the feel and the sound and the smell of the place I live. It's a beautiful 65-70 degrees outside. The sun is still worm but it is definitely turning fall here. It'll be cold in a month and a half. I LOVE it for now. I'm heading out now to go sit in the park and read for a bit. I really don't know what to do with myself here... I haven't been alone, unemployed or in my own environment for a while now. It's kinda nice getting settled back in. Oh and I found out that I'm going to be a teaching assistant for 3rd year studio with Thomas. That ought to be fun. I can imagine it's going to be a fair bit of extra work but I think I'll enjoy it. Alright, off to read I go. I'll write more on my blog later... I usually update it once a week at least. Try to anyway. Thank you all for making my visit wonderful.
It was good to see you.

Nannaw...

I found this picture of my Nannaw (my mom's grandmother) on a disk Corey had in the office. I can only hope I am as sharp-witted as her someday. This is a hilarious picture by my book... thought I'd share.

Mom's new pad...

Mom's building


View into downtown... the picture is really crap though and doesn't do it justice. It's quite pleasant despite my apparent lack of photographic talent.


Mom's building again...


...and another shot towards downtown.


The view from the building's entryway. Mom's apartment is that first door on the left.


Looking back towards the entry gate from which the last picture was taken. Mom's apartment is now the last on the right.


This is the view Northeast from the central patio area.


This is that central patio area.


This is on the other side of the building but it gives you an idea of the general feel of the apartments. It's quite quaint here.


More common area between apartments...


...and more.


Ok, so this is mom's door...


...and through the front door...


...the living room ("Are you showing pictures of my dirty house online?" -Mom)


...kitchen...


...living room on the left, kitchen on the right.

And that's pretty much it. She's got a nice little place here. She's right next to two freeways but not close enough to hear them. She's just up the street (about a mile) from the middle of downtown San Diego in the middle of a nice neighborhood filled with young couples and families. There's a nice neighborhood area just up the hill from her place... about 5 short blocks... where there are a couple of small grocers, a couple of pizza places, coffee shops, corner flower vendor, fruit vendor, et al. And it's all run by locals! You can see Coronado bridge from here... should've taken a picture of that... and there is a park just up the street with a beautiful overview of the city. In fact, I'm going to go take pictures of that now.

Vegas, baby! Vegas!

So last week my boss asked me if I wanted to go out and do inspections in Vegas and I figured, "what the heck." So I flew to Vegas Sunday night and spent Monday-Thursday in the friggen ridiculous desert heat taking pictures of cracks in houses. It wasn't difficult work but it sure was draining. By 5:00 you are definitely ready to go home and take a shower. It's the first time I've been in dry heat... it's really not bad compared to Oklahoma. It may be 100 degrees at 10:00 at night... but it's only 10% humidity so it doesn't feel that uncomfortable... just freakishly warm. So I got through that alright... it was nice to take a break from sitting in front of a computer 7:30-5:00. Now I'm back and there are a whole lot of files to format.

My time in San Diego is almost over... school starts in a few weeks. I get to see my cats again in a couple weeks. I've enjoyed myself here for the most part... despite the inordinate amount of stress I went through readjusting to America. So it goes.

Oh yeah! I wouldn't be surprised if FOX and CNN aren't giving it much coverage but a court in Detroit ruled that Bush's surveilance programs (remember the one where he bypassed the top-secret special court set up to allow wire-taps in special circumstances like national security? The one where they obtained phone records and cel phone records for essentially the whole of America and indiscriminately combed all of our personal conversations for 'potential threats'?) violate the seperation of powers outlined in the Constitution (the part that says we have 3 branches of government so that no one branch can wield all the power) and the 4th amendment (the part that says "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.") The court ordered the surveilance programs shut down. This is the first victory for the good guys in a looooooooooooong time... now, of course, Bush's lawyers have appealed and both sides have agreed to a stay of execution. We'll see what happens next... but now at least the United States government's judicial branch has called a duck a duck and labeled Bush's actions for the past 6 years unconstitutional... you might even call that un-American.

And lastly, I've been asked alot lately what the Section Eight in my blog name means. Primarily, it is a reference to the government's low-income housing program and to the name of a discharge from the military for reasons of mental instability/insanity. I thought it was fitting on both accounts. There's your trivia for today...

Peace... we may never have it everywhere in the world at once but if you stand for peace then it's a start. If you demand peace from your government it's a start. If you raise your voice and let it be heard... in your workplace, in your friends' homes, in elections, in the streets... then it's a start! A majority is made up of a bunch of individuals... we forget that sometimes when we think we can't do anything... when we think it's out of our hands... when we think it doesn't affect us. We forget that it takes a start before an end can be reached. What legacy are you leaving for your grandkids?

And now for something completely different.

I found this really cool website today that you ought to take a few minutes and check out. It's a collection of stories about people's experiences on the NYC subway system. They are all short and most of them are really interesting.

Subway Stories

"Bush is scamming America. Every day we find out this government knew more about these terrorists in advance than it has ever admitted."

Max Cleland statement to NY Times, Washington Post and Salon.com upon his resignation as chairman of the 9/11 Commission. [Not] Surprisingly, his statements were never picked up by mainstream media. They remain buried in those 3 publications.

"Bush had complete war plans for Afghanistan on his desk on September 9th and the source for that is Condoleza Rice in May 2002."

Nicholas Levis, The Citizens' Commission on 9-11. This information was also released briefly in the news but quickly buried.

I'm not kidding...

I've added links to the Citizen's Commission on 9/11 and 9/11 CitizensWatch. The Citizen's Commission was held in light of the massively and openly fraudulant government commission on 9/11. The government's commission was plagued by gross conflicts of interest (in other words they were business partners, golf buddies and friends with the bad guys they were supposed to be investigating), was criminally negligent in its search for information (altered documents, ommitted facts and perjured testimony to name a few crimes), and released a document (the "official" government report) which is an outright lie. There is a mass of documentation and proof that the "official" government report is filled with ommissions and lies... this Citizen's Commission brings out that proof in non-judicial testimony by a barrage of witnesses. The whole hearing is seperated into 15-30 minute sections and is intriguing to listen to or watch. This is not going to go away... please find out the facts and decide for yourself. Don't accept the government's story at face value. They have lied to you. They have played you for a fool because they know that the majority of Americans won't bother reading, listening to or finding the truth. They Didn't count on people like you reading a post like this. They didn't think that thousands upon thousands of people would research their crimes and spread the word of their criminal acts. Our government had foreknowledge of the attacks of September 11th. We know this as a matter of fact from their own statements... their own words.

Want to know why the head of the CIA's counter-terrorism unit said in August 2001, "We are going to be struck soon. Many Americans will die. And it could be in the US." ?

Want to know why 15 of the 19 suspected hijackers received their visas through special channels at the CIA embassy in Saudi Arabia?

Want to know why the US government wired money to the suspected attackers just before September 11th?

Want to know why the US government ignored warnings from Britain, Egypt, Germany, Jordan, Russia, Argentiana, France, Israel, Morrocco and the Taliban itself (to name a few) that included the name of the terrorists' operation, the method of attack, the location of the attack, the number of hijackers and the relative timeframe?

Want to know why there were multiple "hijacking excercises" being executed around the country by the FAA, NORAD, the Air Force and others on the morning of September 11th that resulted in planes being redirected away from the Northeast and radar screens being filled with "false blips" of "hijacked aircraft?"

Want to know why the government has lied about and attempted to cover up these excercises?

Want to know why hundreds of insider trading deals on Wall Street that indicate foreknowledge of the attacks has not, to this day, been investigated?

Etc...etc...etc...

Watch or listen to these testimonies... it's like court drama only better! It's like a murder-mystery, only real! It's like CSI or NYPD Blue only it involves your very freedoms and liberties... and the actual accountability of people who are responsible for the deaths of thousands and thousands of people.

Night Song from Thus Spoke Zarathustra

by Freidrich Nietzsche
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Night has come; now all fountains speak more loudly. And my soul too is a fountain.

Night has come; only now all the songs of lovers awaken. And my soul too is the song of a lover.

Something unstilled, unstillable is within me; it wants to be voiced. A craving for love is within me; it speaks the language of love.

Light am I; ah, that I were night! But this is my loneliness that I am girt with light. Ah, that I were dark and nocturnal! How I would suck at the breasts of light! And even you would I bless, you little sparkling stars and glowworms up there, and be overjoyed with your gifts of light.

But I live in my own light; I drink back into myself the flames that break out of me. I do not know the happiness of those who receive; and I have often dreamed that even stealing must be more blessed than receiving. This is my poverty, that my hand never rests from giving; this is my envy, that I see waiting eyes and the lit-up nights of longing. Oh, wretchedness of all givers! Oh, darkening of my sun! Oh, craving to crave! Oh, ravenous hunger in satiation!

They receive from me, but do I touch their souls? There is a cleft between giving and receiving; and the narrowest cleft is the last to be bridged. A hunger grows out of my beauty: I should like to hurt those for whom I shine; I should like to rob those to whom I give; thus do I hunger for malice. To withdraw my hand when the other hand already reaches out to it; to linger like the waterfall, which lingers evenwhile it plunges; thus do I hunger for malice. Such revenge my fullness plots: such spite wells up out of my loneliness. My happiness in giving died in giving; my virtue tired of itself in its overflow.

The danger of those who always give is that they lose their sense of shame; and the heart and hand of those who always mete out becomes callous from always meting out. My eye no longer wells over at the shame of those who beg; my hand has grown too hard for the trembling of filled hands. Where have the tears of my eyes gone and the down of my heart? Oh, the loneliness of all givers! Oh, the taciturnity of all who shine!

Many suns revolve in the void: to all that is dark they speak with their light--to me they are silent. Oh, this is the enmity of the light against what shines: merciless it moves in its orbit. Injust in its heart against all that shines, cold against suns--thus moves every

They suns fly like a storm in their orbits: that is their motion. They follow their inexorable will: that is their coldness.

Oh, it is only you, you dark ones, you nocturnal ones, who create warmth out of that which shines. It is only you who drink milk and refreshment out of the udders of light.

Alas, ice is all around me, my hand is burned by the icy. Alas, thirst is within me that languishes after your thirst

Night has come: alas, that I must be light! And thirst for the nocturnal! And loneliness!

Night has come: now my craving breaks out of me like a well; to speak I crave.

Night has come; now all fountains speak more loudly. Any my soul too is a fountain.

Night has come; now all the songs of lovers awaken. And my soul too is the song of a lover.

Thus sang Zarathustra.

Ned - Well boys, good thing we brought the eye soap!
Rod and Todd - "The burning is love!"

Know first... then react...

I have just finished watching a newscast called The Great Conspiracy: the 9/11 Newscast You Never Saw, hosted by Canadian media critic and documentary producer Barry Zwicker [bio].

Click here to watch.

This is solid, fact-based, source-supported, responsible journalism that you can't find on television. The program begins by addressing historical US foreign policy citing proven, accepted facts that let you understand our historical interaction with the rest of the world. It then explains the official 9/11 Commission and its report in terms that are easy to understand and follow.

The newscast is 1 hour and 22 minutes long. Please watch it... please. It is not political, it simply analyzes the government's account of September 11th and cross-references that account with relating facts. It is not pointing fingers. It is not laying blame. It's not anti-American. It's not anti-Bush. It's not anti-anything. It simply holds that our government has not been completely honest with us, the American people, about the events leading up to 9/11, that terrible day itself, and the events which precipitated from the disaster.

I lack the words to express to you how desperately I want you to watch this newscast. I can't find an adequate way to express how sincerely I feel the need for people to know this information. It is one hour of your life. Please... get yourself a drink, and watch this newscast. You can even watch it in pieces if you want! Please don't forget it... don't dismiss it... don't pass on this opportunity at knowledge... at understanding.

This is your opportunity to learn what all the argument has been about. This is your opportunity at a neutral [not-for-profit] account of what both sides claim about September 11th. This newscast will make all of the news hype, both left and right, make a lot more sense.

I know that most, if not all of you will simply read this post and shrug it off as "another piece of my political agenda." This makes me sad but there's nothing I can do about that. I would not ask something so passionately if I did not believe in it... I would not believe in it had I not given it a considerable amount of time, thought, and research over the course of the last 4 years.

If you watch this, I will watch or read anything you would ask of me (within reason... no Ulysses, or Ivanho ok?)... I'll trade you 'truths' if you'd like.

Please watch this. Watch it and once you're done write me... ask me a question... admonish me... disown me... recommend it to a friend... anything! It's an hour of your life... please... know then react. I'm not after your reaction... I just want you to know.

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
— Sinclair Lewis