Teeth

It is so nice to come home to my Ubuntu laptop. Like slipping on a pair of comfy slippers and is so wonderful after having to work on the horribly temperamental Windows XP all day. What's more frustrating is having to deal with basically everything changed on Word and Excel. If you navigated with keystrokes (versus the mouse), you're screwed (as far as I know).

I will re-learn Office some day, but right now it's easier to use Open Office, which is pretty much like the old Office. And it's free. And of course the Linux never crashes, unlike the common Window's Send Error Report message on everything Windows. The day that I never have to use Windows again will be a good day.

Another day where I saw blue sky for about ninety seconds. Nary a free minute, although I did go to the dentist. And strangly enough, I found the prying of my teeth with sharp dental instruments to be oddly satisfying.But I took my camera, so you will probably see more of these pictures. This one is outside of my new dentist's office about six blocks from my home. An old fifties style medical arts building with little offices mostly dentists.

GMO

I work with biodiesel. My company has made significant strides towards helping the U.S. quench its insatiable appetite for diesel fuel for agriculture, industry and transportation. We have many sources to make biodiesel, including waste veggie oil, animal tallow and virgin oil. Now some of these crops that are grown include genetically modified seed strains, some of which come from the agribusiness behemoths that we all know and hate. One specific oilseed is canola (I have many samples in jars in my office, a tiny seed much tinier than a BB). It is known as rapeseed in oild and

Now on one hand I read the horrors of these Frankenfoods and the way big business has stuck it to the farmer in forcing them into buying seed, suing them for seed blown into their fields, etc. I was in a meeting with many farmers today, some of whom are looking to grow crops that can keep their land tilled and generating oncome versus being paved over and suburbanized. Others oppose it. Although we could easily buy from the Midwest, one objective is to support the local farming community.

On one hand, a friend I had dinner with tonight suggested that I'm not consuming these crops, only growing them for fuel. But on the other hand, we do not know what the long-term ramifications of GMO crops may be on the environment, humanity, or god knows what else. I have come to learn that there is no easy solution to any of the self-inflicted wounds that plague our little planet. Life's quandaries.

Today was partly sunny. By this I mean the sun peeked through the perpetual stratus clouds for roughly ninety seconds But better weather is on the way.

Gaza

I am ignorant when it comes to certain world affairs, but the overwhelming response of the world to the arocities commited by Isreal prompted me to read about what is going on, outside of the U.S. media of course, which is bascially worthless.

I read how the Israeli army is shelling schools and hospitals killing hundreds in their efforts to eliminate Hamas. At least it seems the are being a bit more successful than accounts I've read of the U.S. attempts to rout the Taliban. But how can a country to flagrantly attack another country and kill thousands of innocent civilians in the name of wiping out the bad guys? I find it repulsive of a regional power to take these actions and furthermore reportedly using phosphorous and other atrocious chemical weapons.

But at least the U.S. is profiting off this, as I've been told that most (all?) of the US aid that the United States gives to Israel (to the tune of a couple thousand bucks per citizen) doesn't even make it to the Israeli government, but gets paid directly to U.S. weapons manufacturers who in turn ship their latest and greatest war toys to Israel.

But out of all fairness, Isreal was provoked by Hamas and Palestine really isn't even sovereign nation after all, just a territory. It's not like a world power going into a sovereign nation unprovoked with a derelict military and wiping out hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians - women, elderly and children included. Oh wait, that's what the United States did in Iraq. And then we wonder why counties emulate the world leader, as we lead the world down the path of lowering the heinous standards of war. This is sometihng that I am ashamed of. And the U.S. turns its back. Disgusting.

Ubuntu

My days of working with Windows XP are always full of surprises and. Even though things are current, legal and professionally installed, it is already a roll of the dice to see when my Lenovo Think Pad will lock up on me.

If there is once US company that epitomizes what is wrong with the corporate model in the United States, it is Microsoft: highly profitable, a crummy product that continues to be morphed into something not much better. It is only a matter of time before Microsfoft is unseated as the predominant operating system. But like the dollar losing it's status as a reserve currency, it probably will not happen soon, but the rumblings can be heard. Maybe it's the XP match with Office 2007 that creates this factor of incompatibility, but it is predictably a daily routine where something locks up my new Lenovo.

Enter Ubuntu, an open-source software package that I purchased on my Dell 1525N laptop and is a refreshing change. And as unstable as Microsoft is, Linux is rock solid. Here is an article in today's New York Times that made me appreciate how fun it is to use this newer operating system. Like driving a VW versus an Aries K-Car. I cannot wait until more people support the newer software versus the same old garbage we've been forced to use over the past decade-plus. But like many things, Linux seems to be taking route in Europe father than here.

Not much more to say, other than the fact that I am happy for Google Calendar in my increasingly activity-filled day There comes a time where I can no longer commit things entirely to memory.

Saturday

Here is a picture taken from the Bellingham Herald. Evidently it's still pretty bad in many areas in Whatcom, Skagit and Snohomish Counties, and probably beyond. This picture is north of Bellingham five miles or so on the flooded Nooksack River.

Today was a day of doing little of substance, although I did go check on a friend's house who is overseas. I look at my time in the day and I always think I am busy, although I really am never that busy per se, but I do have all my time allocated for certain things and most of these are pretty relaxing. So I really never seem to have much free time to do nothing, of which I would like to have more. But there's so much to do in this town that I really am glad I am never bored, yet more time starved. I think this level of awareness has come from the book that I am reading called "The Importance of Being Lazy."

I think in another year or two I may aspire to becoming lazy, but right now there are many things that need to be done on the work front. I enjoy the high and invigoration of working with emerging companies, but through my career I have been able to turn on and off my ability to be a slacker. Maybe I am a closet slacker. I hope I never lose the ability to relax. Who am I kidding - I always have time to watch another wonderful sunset or take a half hour of my day to engage in conversation with someone I meet on the street that I haven't seen for awhile.

Dry

Today was a day when the rain stopped. I would go as far as saying it was sunny, but that would be a gross overstatement. Here is a picture looking off to the south, where the weather's usually a bit (or much?) less rainy.

Not much more to say tonight. Heading out to Boundary Bay Brewery tonight to see a band. I guess I've been going out more than I usually do, and that's not all that bad. Dinner tonight at the House of Orient was wonderful too. And cheap. The Panang Currey was the best I've had in quite some time. And the servings were such that I didn't leave there feeling regrettably stuffed.

More tomorrow. Off to hear some music.

Yoga

Flooding everywhere. The picture above is along U.S.2 near the Pilchck River coming down from Monroe. We had a meeting that was farming related, and we agreed that much of this flooding deposits a wonderul layer of soil rich in nutrients everywhere. And unfortunately some newer houses received some of this wrath that were built in the hundred-year flood zones. But it seems that last century's hundred-year floods are this century's five-year floods.

But today I did something that I wanted to do since the first day I ever set foot in Bellingham,and was too ride my bike down the street with a yoga mat in the rear basket.

And that meant taking a yoga class, something that I'd never done before (although I did Vipassana sitting for a bit). The type of yoga is called Iyengar, and is supposedly good for beginners. (The first few times I thought it was called anger yoga, and thought it was a rather odd name for something supposedly calming.) It is always incredible to enter another entirely new world by doing something like taking a yoga class. And I hope to take quite a few more.

But I knew some of the people in the class (including the instructor), so afterwards we went out and the choice was either Uisce or Temple Bar; it was the latter. Two hours later I sit here feeling the onset of soreness. But at least it is good soreness.