Pumpkin

I figured the idiots in DC would shutdown the gov't. No matter. What else could happen when nothing's changed? I don't remember the previous shutdown if only because I was working in St. Louis.  The big news back then was that the Anaheim Rams were moving to the STL. Oh, yeah, and AT&T decide to break up. (I was working at their Easylink service.)

I was hoping that the USPS would be affected since that would adversely affect people (read: idiot voters who elected the OTHER idiots), but that's not the case. Damn you self-funded USPS! FWIW, the stoppage of public services is high on the suckage list.

The Cleveland Indians have a one game playoff tomorrow. I'm impressed that they're even here given that the owner doesn't care to win and city is fickle.

Top Chef NOLA debuts tomorrow. I've seen most of the previous seasons and the show is waning. There are too many cooking shows!

Agents if SHIELD is kind of silly. Basically, it's Agent Coulson babysitting some annoying kids.  I wonder if the gov't shutdown will furlough SHIELD and there flying cars/ships.

What Renton couples fight about

Well,  they raised the monthly rent by $60.  I haven't signed a lease renewal but I did apply at another apartment thingie.  Yeah, economics.  I don't want to move because I'm an immovable object.   I can't for the life me escape this dilemma.  Moving would force me to revisit the boxes and boxes of stuff that I brought from Texas/Ohio.  Have I downsized in the 18 months that I lived here?

It's less about the number crunching and fiscal business case.  What I've done today is added an option: moving to a cheaper one bedroom apartment.  I have a two bedroom place now but the second bedroom is just a storage room.  I'm much rather be moving to another state or country.  Does that make  any sense?  The sameness and predictability of everything is driving me nuts.

Play Pretend

One of my habits is going to the gym and then walking over to McDonald's to have a coffee.  At $1, it's very much the only thing I can find for one U.S. dollar.  Today is Friday and there were a lot of kids there.  When did kids get a Friday reprieve?  When did the school day become optional?

When one considers the race to the bottom when it comes to jobs and education, shouldn't the kids be doing even more?  Whatever.  I have no kids but I doubt that I'd let them run wild or have an adventure at McDonald's.

The teenage girl who lives upstairs with her mom is always home.  At noontime on a Friday, she was home, that is.  I guess school here in Seattle-land is definitely optional.  I can't remember all the details when I was a wee one but I can remember high school.  I was incarcerated from 8am to 4pm.  And that don't include after-school band practice in the Fall (marching band, you know).  Sometimes I got a ride from my mom and sometimes it was the public bus. McDonald's was one of those rare treats and we didn't hang out there.

My brother is adamant that kids call the shots.  There's a lot of truth to that but I think yours truly is old school.  I'm so old school I looped back and became progressive.  No, you're not special at all.  You are cannon fodder for the faceless, anonymous companies who'll value your worth far less than a McDonald's coffee.

Army Dreamers

Sometimes I'll stumble onto an old song that brings back even old memories. The Kate Bush song "Army Dreamers" magically teleports me to college and reading Brit Lit. I didn't have many friends let alone friends who even liked Kate Bush or The Cocteau Twins or Sinead. I wonder what would have happened if I kept doing fuzzy things, like taking English courses for nought.

I managed to run for 32 minutes which just happened to be 3 miles. The next goal is to keep doing that. I am so not a runner. But I now realize that things fall apart.

Google's Music Manager is wacked. I upload iTunes playlists that are simply an album, but only a couple of mp3s make the jump to lightspeed. And it keeps making Instant Mixes that were designed by interns smoking something. Ok, it's free but I hate things that don't work. The Windows-based Music Manager feels really dot-oh. I wonder if there are replacements. And yes, Windows sucks but that's like saying the economy sucks.