The Atlas Complex

Morning

2008-07-16T11:59:00.003-04:00

The Orleans House is down now. It was done on Monday when I walked into work from the metro. A crane was still working away digging twisted metal out of the hole in the ground. I guess there was a basement, or they simply made one. I wonder what they are going to put in...I've heard a highrise but if it's condos, apartments, business...I've no idea. I can't imagine its condos with the housing market the way it is.

Scout spotted a pigeon this morning and started his chirping-talking and stalking it. I saw it flutter about below the balcony and then it appeared on my growing Italian parsley plant and then flew off to another rooftop.

No Second Troy - Yeats

2008-06-19T09:16:00.001-04:00

Why should I blame her that she filled my days
With misery, or that she would of late
Have taught to ignorant men most violent ways,
Or hurled the little streets upon the great.
Had they but courage equal to desire?
What could have made her peaceful with a mind
That nobleness made simple as a fire,
With beauty like a tightened bow, a kind
That is not natural in an age like this,
Being high and solitary and most stern?
Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?

Compassion

2007-08-03T14:07:00.001-04:00

Although I guess I should keep my compassion separate from my ambition here? How would that work?

See previous post...

Three things I would like to do if I won the Mega Millions

2007-08-03T13:58:00.000-04:00

1) Fund mountain gorilla protection. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20012317/site/newsweek/

2) Fund Al Gore's fight on global warming. When Precious, Amy, Julia and I went to see the photography exhibit at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum there was this picture of a polar bear stranded on a thinning block of ice in the middle of the ocean with no where to go. It was captured from a helicopter. The photographer said he checked the temperatures daily and they did not go below freezing. the look on this polar bear's face was just so haunting to me that I was actually crying while looking at it. The bear had no where to go. No way to get food. Nothing. It's likely she/he starved to death there on that block of ice, or died trying to swim her/his way to shore.

3) Fund Giant Panda research. I just love these guys. Especially Tai Shan. :) And I want another baby panda in DC.

Is this type of research actually good?

2007-06-27T12:31:00.000-04:00

http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/06/26/sexuality/index.html

More and more people believe that homosexuality is not something that can be changed. That we are born with or without it.

I'm not sure this is a good thing or not. It seems to imply that if homosexuality is not inborn, then there is indeed something wrong with it.

I really don't think that's what gay proponents want to promote.

There are numerous species of animals that exhibit homosexuality. Are animals with a much smaller brain capacity than ours really capable of committing a moral wrong?

I think not. Perhaps this is the research angle we should be taking.

Time and Space

2007-06-18T20:36:00.000-04:00

So I sit down at my computer desk to write and I decide that my eyes are straining too much to see the screen that my posture is bent forward, and this can't be good if I want to have any sort of stamina to write. So I move the lovely iMac closer, off of it's pedestal and down to eye level (it's true, you know, the computer screen, even though 20 inches, was way too far away to see text well enough without bending forward in the desk chair and inching close). I've been meaning to do this for a month now, but that thought of rearranging every item on my to accomodate the move is daunting.

Then I notice the dust. My god, the dust. If you know me, you know I have a thing about dust. And it's not a good thing.

But I told myself, NO. You will sit down and forget the dust and write.

So that is what I'm doing now, except I keep thinking about that dust.

This weekend I tell myself. This weekend.

2007-06-06T12:27:00.001-04:00

God. If I am to buy a condo like the one I am living in now, it's gonna be like 450,000 buckaroos.

Now I'm depressed.

Love this poem

2007-02-06T13:45:00.000-05:00

This is a wonderful poem by Mr. Neil Gaiman:

http://www.spiderwords.com/feature1.htm

2006-11-08T14:32:00.000-05:00

"Keep your compassion separate from your fame and ambition."
-Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu, Physician (1385-1470)

From Text Messages Last Night

2006-11-08T10:18:00.000-05:00

From Liz: U and ur serious literature!
(In response to my reading White Noise by Don Delillo)

From Me: I know I'm a literary snob but I watch as much reality tv as I can. Things balance out.

Consolation

2006-11-08T10:09:00.000-05:00

Please please please let Jim Webb win over George Allen for the VA senate seat. It would be my consolation prize for the Same Sex Marriage Ban passing in VA.

And Precious and I are thinking of buying a house in VA? Are we insane? You be the judge.

Congrats to Nancy Pelosi for being the first female to be Speaker of the House and to the Dems for taking over.

On Election Day

2006-11-07T13:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday a younger friend called inquiring if Native Americans were actual citizens of the United States. I felt utterly horried. And offered up a blank, "are you kidding, me? Yes" answer. Such is the state of education in America. Disregard anything that we have done, or are doing, wrong.

While waiting in line today at 7 am right when the polls opened I was actually pleasantly surprised that there was, in fact, a line. Then I got to looking around. I was the youngest looking person there. And do with that what you will . . .

And I'll leave you with some quotes that I found on Grumpy Old Bookman's blog:

There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second.

If you want to be thought a liar, always tell the truth.

A best-seller is the gilded tomb of a mediocre talent.

Every author, however modest, keeps a most outrageous vanity chained like a madman in the padded cell of his breast.

2006-10-31T17:13:00.000-05:00

First post.

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