Chinese Garden

Chinese gardens are straight rock awesome.  This one is in Portland, Oregon.  They have a building where you can have tea. (Maybe I can live there?)  If I was building a house, I couldn't do much better than this.  Or this.

Photo by Jessica Hibbard (Flickr jesshibb)

Somalia

"Our people like conflict, rather than peace and negotiations." shopkeeper in Mogadishu, as quoted by The New York Times.

Motivation

Ooo-ooh child, things are gonna get easier.  Ooo-ooh child, things'll get brighter.

Photo by Alpha Tango Bravo / Adam Baker

Portland

So Micki and I have a list of places we would like to go.  Places we've discussed, and have no current plans to visit, include:

Ireland

Greece

Scandinavia

Vermont

Quebec

Toronto

Niagara Falls

Washington, DC

Wisconsin

Colorado

Seattle

Portland

California

Tokyo

China

New Zealand

...and there are many more I haven't discussed with her.

But one place, I really think I need to go, and I haven't been there, so I don't know if I'll like it there, and hell if I went it would be for a week or so and how can one like something fully after only one week unless it only costs $1.99.  Still, I want to go to Portland.  I've heard so many good things.

And there are mountains, the Pacific ocean, wine, beer!

We

Saturday night (uh...Sunday morning) I tried to figure out who was up with the "We" commercials.  It's Al Gore.  Al Gore founded the Alliance for Climate Protection which is trying to raise public and political support to solve the climate crisis.  Over 2,000,000 people have signed on to their campaign, and last night I did as well.

What does this mean?  Probably nothing, but I support the Alliance's efforts to keep environmental concerns at the front of American discussion.  The evidence is clear that humanity has put an imprint on our surroundings which has had a profound impact on our planet.  Resistors to the green movement must only disagree as to the urgency of this problem.

...and its fun.

Attribution

I feel bad, I meant to attribute the picture at the top of this blog, however now I cannot find it.  So...I hereby claim the picture at the top of this blog is not the property of myself, someone else took it, and from the looks of it, created the scene depicted herein.  Whoever you are, this picture inspires me, and makes me hopeful.  It signifies life in difficult times, to me, idyllic country.  Thank you.

Happy Holidays

December is the holiday jackpot.  Christmas, Chanukah, New Years Eve...they take place the same time of year.  There is a reason.  Without the holidays, December would suck.  My least favorite month is November, because the plants die, it is rainy, and cold.  If November is a sucker punch, December is the realization the guy who sucker punched you could also kick your ass legitimately.  So we have solved this problem by celebrating things now.  It is unlikely Jesus was born December 25th, and Chanukah is not the most important day in the Jewish calendar, but it is cold.

We string lights, to keep us from the winter darkness.  We might put a tree in our homes in an attempt because we feel bad for them, and because we need air.  I think it is wonderful, thank you ancestral problem-solvers.

This December Micki and I will be really taking it to Mr. December & and Mrs. January.  We are leaving our cold puke-filled* town, for a hopefully less cold, less barf-filled ideal.  C'est Paris, et Koln, Allemagne.

That's right we refuse to not live this winter, and we're telling the Big Bad Recession to huff, and puff, and blow us to Europe (and all of our money into the wind... ... ...I mean United Airlines).  I am excited.  Let us be free of the vomitous plague!

Micki and I have recently purchased a Flip Mino video-recorder and it is coming with us.  Inspired by the Year in Europe podcasts, I hope to be adding videos documenting our adventure, taking Jinklets to another dimension.

*Omaha is not "puke-filled" as such, however I have reason to believe there is puke somewhere tonight.

Future

What is my thing?

Specialized Division of Labor.  Find one thing and get really good at it.  What is my thing?  Is there a way still to like it?

$140,000 student loan debt.  What was I thinking?  Then again applying for a job paying 35,000 dollars means other things paying that much I suppose would work.

Bar Exam, MPRE?, Job Search, Finals, Disinterest, Apathy, Devils, Demons, Drains.

Dawn, Dew, and Greens.

Incompletes

I need to finish a blog.

I have written two or three blogs in the past weeks, but I don't finish them.

I will attempt to be more concise in the future.  The purpose of starting a blog was simply to get writing in a unstructured way.  To let my thought become words.

...

That's it.

Obama St. Louis

This weekend Micki and I are in St. Louis to visit my family.  After we got to the house around 7:30 Friday night, my family minus Chris went to eat in Des Peres at The Corner Pub.  I had a burger topped with crazy amounts of cheese.  It tasted good, but I felt bad.  At home, Micki and I told my mother we were going to Paris; the reception was lukewarm.

Today we went to Eckert's, but not before we drove past the Arch grounds to see the crowd assembled for the Obama rally.  Of course 100,000 people were there!  I can't believe it, but I am enthusiastic there are so many St. Louisians are for Obama.

  

Eckert's was fun...  I chased Andrew around the Orchard, and I became disheartened when I could not catch him at all.  I must workout.  We got apples, pumpkins, cider, etc.  Fun-ish.

Conservative Instincts

Yesterday, giddy as I was from the growing confidence I have that Barack Obama will become president, I found an excuse to call home and talk politics.  Excuse: Debates over + My mother's statement maybe the debates will clear things up for me.

The debates didn't clear things up for her, she is leaning...Clinton.  She will write Clinton in, unless something convinces her to jump to Obama in the next 2 weeks.

Then I talked to my brother Chris.  "So you're coming home?"  "In two days."  "You voting for McCain?"  "Not a chance"  "Obama's a Liar, infanticide, capital gains tax(?)."  "When did he lie, you've been fooled, capital gains tax(!?!)."

Why does my family support McCain, or better asked, why are they closed off to the idea of an Obama presidency.  The vote totals in my family this year will be 3 McCain, 1 Obama, 1 Clinton.  Generally I know why they are Republicans, abortion bad, taxes bad, government bad.  Of course I strongly, violently, hopelessly disagree with their political instincts, but how were these instincts formed?  How were mine formed?  In my family these instincts, for me and them, are solid as rock.

It seems clear they are formed as children.  I can remember Chris lobbying me as a 4 year old for Bush in 1988, and again in 1992.  The strongest issue for him has always seemed to be abortion.  He wrote an apparently researched paper on abortion in high school, had said various democrats want to kill unborn children.  The whole "It is a private choice to be made between a woman and her doctor" thing does not register at all.

There is also a distrust of government, and a seething hatred for taxes.  Chris works hard for his money and he doesn't want government to take it.  Government of course uses the money to provide police, education, national defense, money when you are old so that you can live, and other things, but there's no chance this matters.

As for my father and my brother Mike, they are less vocal about these insticts, but they are there.  My father has listened to Rush for decades, and when I made it a habit of listening to NPR on the kitchen radio, I found Mike listening to Rush on the same.  My family's Missouri home is close to Webster University, and once we we driving through campus and my father saw two young men holding hands, and he turned his eyes away, and made clear he thought it disgusting.

So three of five voting members of my family are COnservative Republicans, and even today with 10% of the country finding the country on the wrong track, they do not consider voting for any democrats.  The instinct was there early, but how did it start?  This post does not know, but a majority of Americans do not have it.

Cancel the Debate?

Whatever the result of this news, there must be three presidential debates, and there must be one vice-presidential debate.  If the debate on September 26th does not go forward, the fourth debate whether presidential or vice-presidential should occur in the October 20 - 27 range.  Enough time before the election, and enough time after the third debate.

But this doesn't smell right to me either.

Paper Topic

The grade in my Banking Regulation Seminar will be decided by a paper on a topic chosen by me.  In that I have a new burning interest in all things european, I thought I'll write about european banking.  Pretty fancy i know.  However european banking is no smaller a field than american banking, so I must narrow further.

A natural dovetail from european banking could be the ECB, or European Central Bank.  All I know of this bank is it manages monetary policy for the eurozone, is headed by the Jean-Claude Trichet (ok i had to wiki that) and is at least vaguely similar to the Federal Reserve.  Too much else is beyond my capabilities right now.  I am pretty confident they can raise prime? rates and the like.  

A work in progress...

Political Prohibition

So, I am on a self imposed weeklong prohibition from watching or reading or hearing anything related to the residential campaign, because I was getting too worked up.  I would just be furious all the time, and I didn't want to be furious anymore.   This article explains why:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/opinion/13sat1.html?ref=opinion

Please nation, get some sense into your fucking heads.  We are not electing a high school class president, this is not homecoming court.  This is not MTV's Sweet 16.  This is an election for the PRESIDENT AND VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.  The most powerful and dangerous positions in the world.  

Now you make think, dangerous?  Consider if I had a machine gun, and I walked into a crowded place determined to kill as many people as possible, how many people would I kill?  100?  200?  Liberal estimates I think.  Now think of all the people in the United States who will die in the next four years unless they do not obtain adequate healthcare.  With 40 million Americans without healthcare, and millions more with healthcare that doesn't cover their health, any president who doesn't change this situation is dangerous. 

Think of all the people, American and otherwise, who will die because of unnecessary wars waged by this country, unless we stop waging war out of preference and reserve war for only those extreme times when our families, our land, and our lives will be taken without resort to war.  Any president who doesn't change this situation is dangerous.

Obama offers a specific set of policy initiatives that breathe new life into the American experiment and offer hope to millions of Americans for whom the experiment has failed, is failing, and will continue to fail these millions and millions more should nothing change.

What is John McCain going to do?  How will he fix healthcare, and how is that different from everything else that has been talked about by previous president up until now?  How will his plan result in all Americans obtaining health care?  How will his plan ensure that Americans not just have healthcare, but healthcare that covers their health?  How will he do it?

What else will John McCain do?  How will he ensure that American does not enter into wars that should not be waged?  How is his plan different from the current president?  What criteria would he use when considering whether to deploy our armed forces?

I think the only answers are respectively, whatever it takes, and extreme caution.

Sweater and So On...

Today Micki and I went to Banana Republics to look at things.  Micki got a 30% off email, so we thought we would check it out.  I am looking for nicer things than the normal t-shirts, cargo shorts, and jeans. 

We were there and after looking at things for Micki, I looked a the Jon section.  I saw polo shirts on the sale rack, and grabbed a black one to try on.  They had this green wool zip sweater jacket with buttons.  I was looking more for a large black or gray long coat, but with Micki's urging I agreed to try it on.  After trying the polo and the wool sweatery thing on, as well as several others, Micki and I agreed the two items had to be bought.

I had fun at the store...  Trying on clothes with Micki there to balance me out.  She helps me decide if something is too ambitious, or tip my hesitance over the edge (like the sweater).  The 30% off meant we got the sweater and shirt, as well as a last second tie, for only the sticker price of the sweater.

Micki

I am engaged to a beautiful woman.  So beautiful.  Her name is Micki.  I love Micki.  I will always love her, and I will love her every day, each day, so much until my heart gets tired and I need to go to sleep.  I sleep in her love and I wake up every day invigorated with passion, and drive, and the ability to hold myself up to my destroying mind, because with her I'll be fine.

I love Micki.

Trip..Duluth.1

I have already mentioned one obsession on Jinklets, and here is another, travelling.  I fear becoming defined b my obsession, which I feel is a reasonable fear.  Obsessions, or those general fields I spend a large amount of time in and around, are things I spend a large amount of my time, my life, in and around.  In any event so far as Jinklets is concerned, I am a politico traveller.

I enjoy going on trips.  Who doesn't right? Right, but most people are not obsessed with it, so what is the difference.  Travelling to me is more than leaving Omaha for a short time.  It is education, enriching, interesting, independent, and growth. 

It is freedom, freedom I do not have otherwise.  It is life, it is living, as freely as possible.

Back to School

I got a haircut last week and began class!  I have theme days.  Monday-Wednesday-Friday is business day, and Tuesday-Thursday is international law day.  I didn't plan the days this way, but that way they are.  I am almost different people on the different theme days.  I wear a tie on business days, like a businessman, because I work on those days.  On the international days I wear t-shirts, and shorts.  I will become Batman.  The haircut is awesome!

When will Obama announce his Vice-President?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have no life.

Election 2008

Currently I spend more time interneting about the 2008 elections than most other activities.   I have done this continuously for over a year.   What about elections excites me?  Competition?  Civics?  Power?  Well, I like the maps.  Also I am crazy anti-McCain.  Nothing against McCain, I'd take McCain over many other Republicans.  Mostly it is not that I am anti-McCain, but anti-Republicans.  But not all Republicans, only the ones whose victory plan is the mass deception of the American people.   I don't like them.  Then again if it works perhaps I should be anti-American people.  I am to an extent.

So in review elections excite me because of maps, and because I am crazy anti both Republican decievers and Americans.

That doesn't make sense.  I think it is mostly the maps.

Go Maps!

Me

Hi.  This is me.