I tripped across a detailed, well-written and researched article by Naomi Wolf. It’s also an alarming article entitled Fascist America in 10 Easy Steps.

I can’t imagine the daily horrors visited on people facing foreclosure now. The numbers continue to climb and the economy plummets. I’ve been told I like to worry. Maybe that’s true, but I think the current situation is worry-worthy. (more…)

I am thankful. I’m working on my farm today. I’m getting my cabin ready to move it. It’s a long, arduous process. It refuses to meet any of my self-imposed deadlines, but it is progressing.

How many people can honestly say that the house they inhabit is paid off? How many people own a mortgage — or are owned by one?

My little cabin is tiny, it’s true. It doesn’t have many of the amenities considered “essential” in the modern world of the USA. It has everything I need. It’s warm and weather proof, it has places to go and be alone — with doors to close. It has a good sized gathering-place kitchen that dominates the whole first floor (which isn’t that big, so don’t be too impressed). (more…)

Thanksgiving is going to be rather non-traditional at my house this year. Byron, Alex and I will be at the cabin working. My father and mother will be there with us during the day, retiring to their own cabin on the lake in the evenings. (more…)

I’m not sure what I need to do to prepare. I have the clothes. I have a suitcase. That’s not the problem. I don’t seem to be able to determine what I’ll do with my time while I’m away. Will I read? Will I sleep to an exceedingly late hour? Will I get seasick and wish I’d stayed at home? Will I get up early, run around all day, participate in events and excursions and fall into bed exhausted late in the evening and get up the next day to do it all over again? (more…)

A recent case in Washington DC may have some long-reaching ramifications for constitutionalists and gun rights activists alike. Read more about Parker vs. District of Columbia.

Byron’s Art Club took a trip to the Cincinnati Art Museum Saturday. Some of the parents went and I took Alex and Brittney along with us just for kicks. It was a wonderful day. The museum was enjoyable and when we returned to town we went to Joseph-Beth Booksellers and enjoyed a Mocha Latte and browsed the stacks. (more…)

I’ve had some pretty unproductive days in recent weeks. It seems that I spend much of my time chasing my proverbial tail. I start to work on a project and find that I have to go do a couple other things to finish that project, and then one or two more things for each of those things — and so it goes. (more…)

I’ve been decidedly apolitical for the past few years. I have a few pet issues (like Net Neutrality) and am probably more Libertarian than any other recognized political flavor. I also believe in individual rights — as it relates to freedom, property, reproduction, and bearing of arms.

With that said, I must say I was quite surprised to find out more about Ron Paul, a Republican candidate for the Oval Office. With a couple of glaring exceptions, I really like his stance on most issues. I mean I REALLY like them. I don’t know if I can vote for him with his stance on those couple of issues, but I do find him pretty impressive in most areas. If I were to employ the 80/20 rule, he’d win my vote, but I’m not ready to do that quite yet.

And how did I find out about him, after deciding to be apolitical during this election? I found an article on him spending a weekend poking at his iPhone until he hacked it and installed a “tweaked” Ubuntu distribution on it. I find that impressive. Impressive enough that I went to his campaign website to learn more… and then to Wikipedia to compare him to his competition for the Republican nomination for 2008. (more…)

Yesterday, I was in shock to learn how many of my family members (on my Mother’s side) have MySpace pages. I dunno why, but (before yesterday) I would have been willing to bet cold, hard cash that my maternal aunts didn’t even KNOW about MySpace, other than maybe a passing mention by the teenagers in the family. (more…)

I joined Nablopom several weeks back, committing myself to a daily blog for the entire month of November. I decided that my Twitters didn’t count, nor did posts on other blogs (like my ActiveRain blog or my contributions on RemoteProfessionals.com or other sites.) And, honestly, it’s been a struggle.

I think if I didn’t HAVE to blog daily, it would be easier. But this came at a good time, and it has helped to keep me focused on my blog during a period of time when I’d probably let my blog slide. When things are particularly challenging, I usually don’t talk about the details on the blog. I talk about the symptoms, on occasion, but not the cause. I only explain the cause after the fact if at all. Let’s just say that trying to blog right now is difficult.

I do like the idea of daily blogging, in the same way I’ve always thought it would be great to follow in the footsteps of the great men and women in American history who journaled every day. (more…)

I was introduced to a cool bumpersticker this weekend that works for me on so many levels. I know it was merely a political statement for the owner, but with the whole “bad Karma” thing I’ve noted in 2007, it fits beyond the White House reference:

2008: The end of an error

(Politically speaking, I just hope that it’s not the beginning of an even larger one.)

I’m working toward the move to the farm while planning our Christmas trip. (I’m taking the kids on a cruise instead of doing a traditional holiday this year.) Honestly, with everything that’s been going on, I could use the break.

Of course, despite my long-term planning, the day is coming at me quickly, and I still have not finished all the preparations, the shopping, the packing, the “stuff” affiliated with this trip. I will, but it’s starting to be a source of stress rather than the holiday stress relief I’d hoped it would be.

(more…)

There must be something wrong with our society that makes time fly for not only the old people (like me), but also for the youngest members of our families.

I blogged about this over on Active Rain today.

It’s Fall! This weekend, the colors were astounding. I think this weekend was the peak for this year. The cold snap last week brought out the fire in the leaves on the farm. It was quite a show. Simply beautiful.

Over this long weekend (the kids had Thursday and Friday off school for Fall Break), my father came down to the farm and we worked to get running water on the farm.

Happily, the well pump is working and the water is just as cold and clear and wonderful as it always was.

We don’t have water circulating in the house yet, but we have it coming in and going to the pressure tank. We did most of the plumbing for the drainage system and the electric is now ready to go on the on-demand water heater. (more…)

Alex, my nine-year old, has been pretty sick for the past few days. She tried to attend school yesterday, but didn’t make it long before I was called to come pick her up.

So, yesterday, in between antibiotics and chicken noodle soup, she worked on her book report due later this week. She booted her new Linux laptop (the one that died on me a couple weeks ago, but now has a different hard drive). She worked on one corner of the desk I was using.

(more…)

This is the year from hell. In the future, 2007 will be known as such in my memoirs. It is the year in which family members accrued enormous health bills to go with their individual trials and tribulations. It is the year in which I have had to move twice already, and will endure another one before year-end. Life churns on.

2007 is the year that everything I touched… broke. My mother told me this weekend (as I held my daughter’s head while she vomited again) that my life seemed to be an embodiment of Murphy’s Law.

I would find that statement offensive… if it weren’t so true. (more…)

This month marks the fifth anniversary of WickedWordCraft.com. Pretty exciting stuff for me. I’ve been in business since 1999 — but I’d not niched until I rolled out WWC in October of 2002. It was the best thing I ever did for my business.

Niching is important to all small businesses, IMHO. Even my own real estate clients have been niching pretty hard lately (see the active rain post I did last week on real estate niches). I’ve been working up ways to further niche and narrow my own services. Hopefully, by month’s end, I’ll be rolling out a new internal business model.

This means I’ll be determining which of the current services I offer I’ll be keeping and which ones I’ll be farming out to other remote professionals. (more…)

After much struggling, and much guilt about how far behind I’m falling in all my work, I finally got Kubuntu working. To be fair, much of the time was spent converting over my data and getting all my programs working. Some time was spent (ok, A LOT of time) trying to determine if I could find programs in Linux that would replace all my essential programs. The answer to that question is now a firm “maybe” — and I’m hopeful.

But this is how my life was on Friday… (more…)

I’m going to veer recklessly off course from my typical blog entries today. It’s been a difficult week, so overlook me…

I’ve always been drawn to decorated band rings. I like fanciful engravings on basic bands. (Think Victorian and Edwardian era stuff - laurel leaves, ivy and acorns.)

I like the idea of decorating the plain, of giving the simple more depth. I like functional art. Whatever that makes me, so be it. I like symbolism and the meanings conveyed in natural items and decorative invocation of the symbolic power of those items.

In the same way, I want to live in a simple house and eat from my over-done, fanciful, renaissance-styled sterling flatwear. I know that may sound contradictory, but I think that we should have the beauty we want in the things we need, rather than having art knick-knacks or examples that can only be admired and never touched, held, enjoyed and used. Museums are wonderful places, and I love them, but I wouldn’t want to live in one. I prefer my home and my life to incorporate the beautiful into the everyday. (more…)