Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
"Property is organized robbery"
Cheers for the birthday greet Mr Z, but christ send all the good vibes to Mudge and Joe.
Mudge mate, I may be 26 now, but even hoary old age doesn’t give me any wisdom to share*. I’ll just say good luck, and come out the other side.
*Although, my new years res is to refrain from shaving this whole calendar year. Beard = wisdom, fact.
Posted by Mew on from London 01/03 at 06:55 AMGood Luck, Mudge.
Another Expendable in trouble…
I am heading to Chicago...home of my abuser to seek medical help for depression and drug abuse. Wish me luck and I will check in when I can.
Posted by JOS on from PR 01/03 at 08:22 AMGood morning (can I call it that??) to MZ, Mudge, JOS and all Expendables.
I’ve just caught up on my last few days of absence here. I’m sorry I wasn’t around to lend any support, for whatever it’s worth.
Mudge - I wish you all the best with this unpleasant choice you have to make. I’ve got my own aging parental issues and I admire you for considering such a massive change and responsibility. All good thoughts are with you.
JOS- May your load be lightened. I wish you well on this journey you’re undertaking. May Strength be your ally in the time ahead of you.
Busy day for me today, but thankfully no major life decisions involved (so far).
I wish you all a good day and will try to stop in again later.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/03 at 09:29 AMI’ll try and crow-bar a thought into todays topic.
First day back at work (bah), I’m building a feature, an article by one of our freelancers about the ownership of online game communities. Probably like most here I sneer smugly at such things, but a big game-world (Asheron’s Call, anyone? No, me neither) has just been killed by its developer, leaving its resident elf-fanciers and orc-worriers high, dry and weepy.
The thrust of the article is whether the time, effort and money spent by these peeps gives them any moral ‘ownership’ of their ‘community’.
Its easy to sneer at that kind of naiveté, especially given the horrifying ‘big’ problems and the personal difficulties everyone’s having. But these things are communities of a sort, and seemingly the only kind some people want to be in.
Clearly a community maintained at the discretion of a wealthy patron or corporation, for profit, is not going to be sustainable. Unfortunately <a href=http://www.celebrationfl.com/ target=new>Celebration</a> is still going. I did hear its against The Rules there to have the same coloured fence as your neighbour. Is this the future? Argh!Posted by Mew on from London 01/03 at 10:02 AMJOS, wish you well man.
Posted by Mew on from London 01/03 at 10:04 AMI won’t say Good Morning today because too many of us are not having a good morning. Seems that the vibes on the planet so far in 06 are all negative. Mudge, Joe, JOS, and now Mickey. I also know that some of the rest of us have challenging issues going on.
The posts on front today that Mickey put up reminded me so much of Thoreau. All about not being a prisoner of your property. I wonder what Thoreau would say today if he could not escape to Walden Pond. My point is that most material things are not important but having a safe, dry, affordable place to call home is very important. Yesterday, I heard from a friend who is having such housing and medical issues that he is moving to China. I often talk about my friend, an RN, who had such similar issues that she moved to Costa Rica. For most of us China and/or Costa Rica are not acceptable options. Tell us more Mickey about what’s going on, housing-wise.
Maybe it is time to post again that photo of the “little” summer house up in Kennebunkport. I still maintain that it should be divided up into apartments for the homeless. I can picture Mudge living there and writing while listening to the sounds of the sea gulls and surf.Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 01/03 at 10:36 AMI’d like to add my twopennorth of goodwill to all those Exers in need - whether housing, famililial, flooding, substance abuse .. the only cheer I can see is Me’s sage decision to grow a beard/ I’ve had one for several years and can honestly say it has increased my wisdom no end. Which gives you some idea of what I was like before!
I’m sending good vibes to you all from the topmost follicle on my head to my webbed hairy toes. As that bloke says in Withnail and I, “hair are our annentae in the universe ...”
Ok, it’s not Blake but I think we need a bit of light heartedness. Anyone wanting to try a P G Wodehouse novel right now would do well, in my view.
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 01/03 at 10:53 AMGiven the poor typing in the above post, can I just say that yes, Mew, beard = wisdom but! knackers the typing skills.
Posted by Chris Wood on from Manchester, England 01/03 at 10:54 AMMAINE?! You wanna condemn me to American Siberia, RMJ? What did I do? How can I make it up to you?! >wink<
Happy birthday, Mew, you’re officially closer to forty than ten...adulthood has you by the foreskin, dude, and it ain’t never lettin’ go. Same birthday as my dad, who’s 80 today.
Jim, Joe, everyone and especially MZ...your support means more than the stuff does. Amelopsis, success attend you as you design aging parents into the garden.
JOS, my Big Country guy, I am walking with you and fighting for you every step. What you need, you got. I believe in you.
One thing I;d like to cavil at...the events of 2006 are just events. Negativity comes from within us. I refuse to be consumed with anger or resentment, though I admit I feel both.
I’m very much closer to feeling that this whole thing is an adventure than I was yesterday. I still hate the California-ness, and I don’t like my father much which I don’t expect to change...but I am hell bent for leather on patching him into the quilt somehow.
Until later, I’ve “added” us all to the healing meditations I do every day.
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/03 at 10:59 AMAh, Mudge...your positivity is spreading from the “south”.
You’re right; as MZ quoted Youngfox the other day”...2006 will be better unless we make it worse....”We can only keep trying to make it better. Joe, I’m glad you managed to keep the house dry (I hope I didn’t miss any updates there) and Mickey I’m sorry to hear of your housing predicament. I can’t imagine that looking for affordable rented accomodations can be easy in NYC.
Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/03 at 11:27 AMWow! What a great start on 2006! I remember when 2004 became ‘05 I said, “Shit, I’m glad that years over!” I was careful, however, not to utter the words, “This coming year can’t be any worse.” Because as we all know it can and often is, so why test it? This past year sucked for me personally on so many different levels I seemed to be getting shit tossed on me from all sides - even the insides. And yet I was always confounded in my well-deserved attempts to wallow in a truly magnificent Blue Funk by this pesky little wood nymph called Hope. I hated it!
The United Farm Workers used to say “Hope dies last!” - though it sounds infinitely more poetic in Spanish (which I don’t speak well enough to share it here - can anyone else help?). I don’t know any of you fellow Expendables personally, and can only process your various problems through the filter of my own life experiences, but for whatever it’s worth to ya: Hang in there, learn the lessons, and if my little friend Hope shows up, hard as it may be, resist the urge to squash his/her head like an over-ripe pumpkin. Things get better. Then they get worse again. Then they start to get better. That’s the cycle of things, the tide of life. And like someone once said, “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn how to surf!”Posted by Rev Joe on from 01/03 at 11:49 AMhappy birthday mew
happy new year again all. i just left the party. well, not exactly but i have been at several almost one after the other and am feeling a little rough.
hows about this for the best and worst start to the year. i met a girl i really liked, we got on great etc etc. then the stinger… she lives about 5 hours away.
bastard.
Posted by michael on from scotland (just crawling out of a whiskey bottle) 01/03 at 12:02 PMgeez!
Happy Birthday Mew!Posted by Amelopsis on from Canada 01/03 at 01:59 PMHappy Birthday, Mew!!!
Rev Joe your #11 reminds me of a poem that a high school chum calligraphied for me a long time ago. It goes something like this....
From the day you were born
Till you ride in the hearse
Things are never so bad
That they can’t get worseMudge, I wish that I could show you some of the places on the Maine coast (especially in the summer time). I bet that you would like Ogunquit and also Provincetown in nearby Massachusetts.
Posted by RMJ on from Churchill 4 Prez Hdqts 01/03 at 02:13 PMHello, My Friends - Mickey, Rosemarie, Mr. Mudge,
Amelopsis, Michael - welcome home, Chris, Mew, Rev. Joe -
Thoughtful, heartfelt posts this morning, from all. Mudge - I’m delighted to see your take on your / our situation/s, today. I agree wholeheartedly. Life throws whatever it throws as us, it’s up to us to refuse to feel crushed and overwhelmed. As always, Mudge, your courage and wonderful wisdom bring me much delight. Thank you.
To everyone, and to Cart, from last night - thank you all for your concern and good wishes.
Hi Amelopsis - yeah, still standin’... Its raining very hard, again, but water levels are down, and I think we’re probably going to be all right.Jim - thanks for your soul-searching replies to Mr. Mudge…
Hell, this reads like a goofy Hallmark Card. Sorry.
JOS - I’ve missed you, of late, and I miss you still. I hope all goes well and that you get the help you need, whatever it might be. Huge good hope to you, my friend.
Mickey - shit. I was thinking, just last night, about rents in NYC. In a sense, there’s always “high water” in NY.
I met a guy, years ago, in Seattle, who did a lot of work on his apartment. The landlady saw it, and asked him to help re-work the remaining apartments in the building. When they were done, she said to the guy: “These places are worth a lot more than they were. I’m afraid I’m going to have to raise your rent!”
He moved out.
I hope a real gem of a place appears soon, and rents for depression-era rates, Mickey. Immense hope to you, too, my friend.Mew & Chris - I’ve had a beard for over thirty years. Don’t know if it adds to my tiny stores of wisdom or understanding… but I’m not shaving it!
Rev. Joe - great thoughts about hope. Here I’ve sent lots of “hope” out to everyone, but I tend to think you’re dead on. I guess I should say: “Just do what needs to be done, right now, in the moment… then deal with the next thing… then the next...” There will always be a ‘next thing,’ and all we can do is face each situation squarely, and with courage and confidence… Can’t work with the future, only with what presents itself right now.
Rosemarie - big hug… just to give you a big hug. And, hey - if you can split that house up, I think we’d make the trip back east…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/03 at 02:35 PMOh, yes - Happy Happy, Mew.
I thought it was yur burthday a few days ago...Dur! Well, no matter. In any case, you’re a day older than yesterday…
Can’t send you my best, as I’m saving that for the sand-bag brigade. So, I’ll send my almost best…Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/03 at 02:38 PM“La esperanza muere última"("Hope dies last") - there, I found it myself. Learn it, memorize it, make a mantram out of it. Personally, I’m envisioning a new tattoo.
The captcha word for me is ‘light.’ I hope all those rain-swelled places (like my own leaky domicile here in the L.A. area) experience lots of healing, drying, evaporative light today, and everybody else gets lots of light showing the way to good things!Posted by Rev Joe on from 01/03 at 02:58 PMJOS and Mudge: My thoughts are with you both.
As I am reminded of constantly by my Buddhist friends, all things are impermanent; everything changes; this, too, shall pass.
In the meantime, please be as well, peaceful and happy as you can be, despite all the shit. We’re all with you.
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO, USA 01/03 at 03:04 PMHello Joe!
Looks like your computer has survived (so far) the deluge. How ‘bout the rest of your world? Did the sandbags hold? (Sorry if you’ve already brought us up to date here—I’ve been sporadic in my attendance.)
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO, USA 01/03 at 03:05 PMMickey: I did 15 crunches and 3 pushups this morning.
This is embarrassing.
But, I’m not 19 anymore, and the numbers will go up quick enough, I’m sure.
I’m looking forward to some soreness later this week....
Posted by Hawk on from Boulder, CO, USA 01/03 at 03:07 PMAs always, your blog has not only the best graphics but the best quotes as well (very interesting one from Adam Smith), to say nothing about the other ‘stuff’, Mickey! Thanks for brightening up my days consistently - and I have found people with whom to exchange comments on these comment threads. I might even meet some of them one day - have always wanted to visit Scotland. Hi, Michael!
And all the best to you, Mudge.
Hi to all you other expendables whom I won’t mention by name because I always forget one or the other.
A pleasant 75F coming up on this Wednesday 4 January 2006.
Goodbye, and good luck from down underCaptcha: ‘plans’. My plans for today: apply for 2 jobs without much chance of getting any ..
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/03 at 03:37 PMAnd my good vibes to all of you who are in some sort of trouble ..
Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/03 at 03:41 PMGood luck with your job search, Helga. Good to “see your smiling face” this dark, rainy day.
Rev. Joe - I guess we’re getting your rain, today. It seems just like regular rain, but it’s “cooler,” and more expensive!
I’ll keep that ‘Spanish’ phrase in mind, Rev.. Thanks.Hawk - zo far zo gut!
I heard, this week, that a cubic yard of water - roughly the equivalent of the space enclosed in the frame of a washing machine, weighs 1,000 lbs.. Haven’t verified this factoid, but I believe it. In the “creek,” now a raging river behind the house, thousands of cubic yards of water must roar past, each minute… at 30 or 40 or 50 or? - miles per hour. It’s amazing that such a wonderful substance can be so incredibly destructive. Some of the areas along the hillside on the opposite bank of the “creek,” were once filled with vegetation and heavy, thick mounds of soil. Now, in places, it’s just bare rock. Whole trees have toppled over and are just wisked off, toward who knows what, downstream.This “playing around with nature” stuff that our scientists and techno-crats and engineering wizards pretend to do, is entirely insane. Nature ALWAYS wins in the end. There’s no fucking with nature, in the long run.
The folks we see up there on the world’s stage, in their $5K pin-striped business suits, flaunting their Princeton or Yale or Harvard or Stanford generated vocabularies are actually frightened, foolish, semi-conscious children, who secretly believe in the tooth-fairy, and desperately cling to the psychotic fantasy that qualities such as vanity and cruelty and barbarity and greed are actually good for the world…Instead, as Dylan once told us -
It’s a hard rain’s a gonna fall. In fact, it IS falling, right now.
Good to see you, Hawk.Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/03 at 04:09 PMHello, Expendables. The 23 comments above this have brought a big smile to my jaded face. Sorry it took so long for me to get here but that might be my M.O. for a while. I have to spend less time here and more time making $$$ in 2006. Anyway, I don’t know where to begin so I’ll start with these three comments:
Mudge, I am thrilled to read this sentence: “I’m very much closer to feeling that this whole thing is an adventure than I was yesterday.”
Mew, I once had a beard. Anyone with the original version of Saving Private Power can check the author photo in there. I shaved it, thus ridding myself of a face covered with salt-and-pepper hair...and my wisdom?
JOS, this is your time now. I just know it.
More soon...I promise.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/03 at 04:12 PMBeards...I’ve had several over the years. I shave them, in fact I restyle me facial hair every so often because I get bored. But also I just can’t abide chindruff. Itchitchscritchscratchflakeyflakeyswish
Uh-uh. Not for me, not for long.
Much activity. My writer’s group tonight, so lots to do there. Getting yet more stuff triaged into boxes for sale, boxes for storage.
Gurg!
Love and higs to each of you
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/03 at 04:33 PMOT but I just read this very good op-ed piece about same-sex marriage/relationships in my local paper, ‘The Age’ - well worth reading IMHO:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/same-love-same-sex-why-not-same-deal/2006/01/02/1136050387123.html
And a suspiciously timed study pointing out the alleged perils of abortion (suspicious because the availability of RU-485 down under is being discussed even while we speak/type) is debunked here:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/doubts-on-abortion-claims/2006/01/03/1136050442094.html
Happy Birthday, Mew!Posted by Helga Fremlin on from Daylesford, Australia 01/03 at 04:47 PMGood to see ya, Mickey. I agree with you about Mudge’s realignment of the senses - first we see the dreadful, then we see adventure. A hearty slap on the back to you both!
JOS - dammit - we love ya, and we’re pullin for ya. We’re looking for your tale of joy and success.
Mudge - you’re doin what needs doin. What greater wisdom is there? Keep us informed, my friend…
Helga, I see that the “culture of life” is in Australia, as well. Diseases spread quickly in this modern age. These folks are passionate about life, as long as it excludes innocents killed in war, victims of capitalism generally, people of color, poor folks of any color, homosexuals or transgendered people, dissidents of any stripe, and, of course, all species of life other than human.
In other words, they worship life, as long as life is defined as excluding much or most of its manifestations…
And, thanks for the links. I’ll peek in at `em right now.
Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/03 at 05:40 PMHey folks. I going to wish you a safe and happy 2007, so as to skip the current difficulties for all. See, it’s that easy. Wasn’t such a bad year after all. I do wish I knew who won the World Cup, though.
Posted by Cart on from near Warshington DC 01/03 at 05:52 PMHello all...from rainy Astoria.
Hey Chris, was it you who got me added to this fun list?
http://tinyurl.com/8mhf5.
There I am (#179 with a bullet) right after the runaway bride.Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/03 at 07:06 PMBtw, Cart, in a shocker, Idaho took the Cup in 2006.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/03 at 07:41 PMSee what happens when you skip a year? The shocking news that Idaho seceded from the United States, became a country and stunned the soccer world in Germany goes unnoticed. Oh well.
Posted by Cart on from near Warshington DC 01/03 at 08:15 PMUh, as far as the link in #29 is concerned, should we try to vote you further up the list Mickey? I think there are some pitiful fuckers ahead of you to be honest. Not sure which way you might want to go with it. Heh.
Posted by Cart on from near Warshington DC 01/03 at 08:34 PMThanks, Cart. I think I can live with being #179 but I’d prefer to be called Mr. Pitiful Fucker...if you don’t mind.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/03 at 08:39 PMHey Joe,
My beard is going to be 33 years old soon (Happy Bir .....no, stop) and yes, Mickey, it is very salt and peppery. I always said I would shave it off when I turned forty (so I’d look younger). Then it was fifty. But I can’t do it. The dogs would bite me and the wife would shoot me.
Hawk - that’s 15 & 3 more than me
and Cart thanks for 2006. It was my best year yet. I didn’t feel a thing.Posted by Jim on from 01/03 at 09:33 PMHello, Pitiful Fucker, Cart, Jim - good to see you guyz.
P.F. - I think you should return to yer old moniker. This new one could hurt book sales. Imagine the quotes and book-reviews…Cart - I don’t like to complain, but 2006 was the first year, since 1966, in which I didn’t have sex.
2006:
Big flood, dozens of sand-bags, three trenches, trashed property, no sex. Now THAT’S a pitiful fucker…
Well, at least it’s over. I’m movin’ ta Phoenix ta become a stud!Jim - I’d guess our beards are roughly the same age. Mine’s almost all “salt,” now, though, while my hair is almost entirely without gray.
I call the beard: Distinguished!
My wife chuckles and says: “Oh, yeah, distinguished...”I remember talking to my daughter, back in the early ‘90’s, about school. I asked her how old her 6th grade teacher was. She said: “Oh, she’s old! Well, not old like YOU, but she’s old!”
Kids will build up your confidence that way… sweet…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 01/03 at 10:08 PMRemember that time in June 2006 when...aw, never mind. Good night, all.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 01/03 at 10:32 PMGood night, all, and please know each of you made my somewhat depressing day a lot brighter with kindness and understanding.
I’d like to ask a small favor of the Expendables...every morning, will the first person to post a comment please write a short shout out to JOS? That way when he DOES have a chance to check in, he’ll be sure to see that we’re there and remembering him with love. Okay by all?
Posted by Mudge on from Dear, dead Austin 01/03 at 11:52 PMHappy Birthday Mew!
Posted by Owen on from oirland 01/04 at 05:47 AM
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