(no subject)

I would like either this bed or this bed. I think more the 2nd one with the headboard. Considering the price, neither of these will happen. But I love them so much. And I can't decide on what to do as far as bedding in my room.

See, Moira and I have decided that, in our 2 bedroom apartment, we're each going to get our own room. We'll likely be sleeping in the same one ninety-five percent of the time anyway (Most likely hers since she'll have the bigger room with the walk in closet. I don't have a need for closet space, though the big room would be nice.), but each of us having our own space is really appealing to me. Plus, if we have someone over who stays the night, we have minimal disruption to routine. I'm really very excited about this move. I'm happily giving away and trashing lots of crap that's been sitting around forever. Simplifying is lightening to the heart and mind.

I'm looking forward to decorating and designing. I'm leaning toward tapestries on the walls and fairly minimalist furniture, but I don't know. Part of me very much likes the idea of a traditional Japanese futon that I can fold up and put in the closet during the day. Even those are a bit pricy, but doable. And I'd have the whole room to work in when I'm not sleeping. I wish I really had a good sense of how comfortable those are and how workable they are for people with any back problems. I don't want to be inhospitable now....

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I was sleeping so deeply on the train this morning on the way in that the conductor had to wake me up and tell me to get off the train! Oops! At least I missed the rush. The little shops in the concourse are all alive and well these days and the bustle is invigorating and exciting. The weather has been fairly mild most of the time I've had to be down here (with a few exceptions) and I'm grateful.

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jimcyl and I drove out to the portion of Bensenville that's been bought out and shuttered by the city of Chicago to make room for an O'Hare airport expansion. We only got about twenty minutes to walk around and photograph before a police officer drove up and told us we had to leave. I wish I knew whether the area was still public property. I suppose not anymore, but I don't really know.

We drove from there out to Gary, Indiana for more abandoned buildings. It turns out that a number of things we used to go to have been locked up tight since last we were there. But no biggie; eventually, they will be open again. These things are cyclical, and as I wrote about my photography in Washington, if you are patient and calm, the world will arrange itself around you. We visited the Palace Theatre and got a few shots of the sad, crumbling interior, then went back to his place for a little snack before I drove on to Kenosha and home.

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I'll be posting a bunch of Kiddieland pictures to Flickr. All the descriptions have been written, and all the pictures cropped and touched up since my trip home on Amtrak; I just haven't posted them yet. Now that I am, they'll go quickly. This is one of my favorites; that little steam locomotive in action, whistle a-blowin', coming around a bend.

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The Kiddieland Limited Rounds a Curve

(no subject)

Would anybody local like a visit from a dog tomorrow evening after work? I can't get to my car in Kenosha until about 6:30, but after that, I'm looking for something to do for three or four hours. Or maybe I'll get some pictures of Kenosha at Christmas if I bring my camera with me. That could be fun.

(no subject)

Does anyone want:

An old Terrayon cable modem?

A Timex Sinclair 1000?

A Rollermouse Pro? (On second thought, I may keep this. I dunno. I kind of forgot I had it, and I think I might have a use for it.)

About 100 or 150 foot run of phone line?

Some sets of KVM cables?

Some (about four or five?) old flat panel touchscreens (max res 800x600 with a serial interface touchscreen)?

Four or five small-footprint keyboards that were scavanged from wall mount computers?

A very old desktop calculator (an APF Mark 1) with a neon tube display? Probably from the mid 1970s. (Needs some cleaning of contacts to work well I think.)

Another, smaller, desktop calculator from around 1975, a Calfax 895M. I don't know if it works.

1 110GB/220GB SDLT tape drive?

A ginormous AAC-9000MD hardware RAID quad-channel SCSI controller? (I think this works, but I remember having issues with one so I don't know.)

An Adaptec 29160 SCSI controller?

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Let me know soon!! Most of this will go away with a Freecycler on Wednesday. Maybe not the flat panels quite yet.

(no subject)

There is an interview right now on NPR with Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, a retired Hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America, about the commercialization of Christmas and the supposed 'war on Christmas'.

I adore this man. Just adore him. He reminds me a lot of Real Live Preacher, who is a liberal Baptist minister who also rocks hardcore.

But this Canadian monk from a monastery in British Columbia has been expounding on how Christmas has always had a secular element dating back to Charles Dickens' time and that that's ok. He's also said that fundamentalism is a birth defect and has talked about it tying in to an overdeveloped instinctive fear response. He described it as Taliban Christianity. He was a particle and quantum physicist before he became a monk. I love him.

People like these two folks remind me of what I've always felt like a priest ought to be. He's tearing down the idea that the nuclear family is the classic family (it arose during the industrial revolution) and even the idea of marriage being limited to one man and one woman, which comes down to secular law that arose much later than Christianity. He's talking about prostitution, and that our first responsibility should be to the health and well being of the women involved, and that they shouldn't be criminalized. That the Western idea of hell is completely off base. Anyway, in short, he's wonderfully informed, articulate, and refreshing. He almost makes me feel good about organized religion, and that's quite a feat. If you get a chance, you might enjoy listening to tonight's program. It should be available for download. Here, here; go check it out.

We really need more people in the world like this.

I need to get to bed. I'm going to take the train from Waukegan tomorrow morning, and then go from there to Posicat's place after work for car fixin'. Whee!