mushinnoshin

So I passed my green belt test this weekend, I’m officially another step down the ladder. Next stop, brown!

This month also marks my two year anniversary. It’s a little strange to look back on the time that’s passed — things change so slowly that you almost don’t recognize it. It’s easy to get discouraged and think — well, what the fuck? Am I any closer to finding… anything?

But then I look back at how far I’ve come, all the changes I’ve made in the last two years, and it’s a little overwhelming. Whether any or all of the changes are attributable to my practice, I don’t know, but I’m sure it has to have helped.

So have you seen those commercials for Chicquita’s new banana package? Well, shoot. I think those of us still stupid enough to buy our produce at Kroger’s would settle for bananas that are still fresh at the store.

Ugh. I really shouldn’t have to throw away the first one I peel off of the bunch.

I’m seriously considering getting into the Plumgood thing, or maybe even joining a CSA plan. The thing is, as a single with extremely limited cooking skills, I’m sure I’d be getting in over my head and sending a lot of good food to tragic waste.

I guess I could start making a trip out to Wild Oats every other week or so, but Green Hills just gives me the creeps. Maybe I’ll try the Cool Springs one which isn’t far from work. But all I really want is a Publix in my area*. Or for Kroger’s to sell a decent piece of fruit. Is that so much to ask for?

Maybe I just need to go native and try shopping at one of the Mexican grocers in the neighborhood. Bananas, pour favour.

* that’s a not-so subtle hint for you 100 Oaks redevelopers

80′s lyrics quiz –

(via both (evil)amy and lynnster)

On Hillary –

The Onion says it best:

“The last thing America needs is a radical liberal who supports the war and the death penalty while opposing flag-burning and gay marriage.”

On Bill, but not that Bill —

it seems that Bill Richardson has announced. I don’t know a whole lot about him myself but Logan at Freedom Democrats has had many good things to say, and of course the advantages of running a governor over a senator have been well discussed elsewhere. Some dems are giving that juice to Vilsack, but I do think Richardson seems to be one to keep an eye on.

From what I’ve scanned he absolutely strikes me as the Democrats best chance for success, absent Al Gore at least. A fiscally responsible, socially liberal, pro-gun Western Democrat? That’s exactly what you need to get the swing from the middle, the people who *want* to vote for Democrats if you stop giving them excuses not to. And for the same reason I think he’s the only one of the field who stands out enough to get into the arena with Hillary & Obama — with Hillary taking the center-south and Obama taking the progressive left, center-north is wide open. And it’s not hard to imagine Hillary & Obama throwing enough mud back & forth to leave Richardson the only one still standing.

I don’t know, all just speculation, but he is definitely on my watch list.

…when 2 hours of yoga, followed by 2 hours of karate, followed by 2 hours of yoga — only leaves enough time in between to scarf down some greasy fast food for lunch.

Sigh.

So last night the Nashville Symphony served up another steaming slice of Shostakovich. (Hoo-boy did I pick the right year to subscribe or what?)

It was quite tasty, and soloist Leila Josefowicz was outstanding (and as I discovered in the pre-show discussion, she was also quite charming in a nerd-ish way that I find irresistible — I was crushing hard : )

But I was also pleasantly surprised by the Prokofiev on the program — selections from his ballet based on “Romeo & Juliet”. I haven’t heard much of his work outside of ‘Peter & The Wolf’ (my favorite version of which being the one done by Weird Al), but this was fantastic. Rapturous and dramatic — just the way I like it. I recognized some pieces of it but I’m not certain from where. I’m thinking at least that the opening stabs of the “Montagues & Capulets” section may be the same stabs that were sampled by Greater Than One for their song Metal — an old old favorite I haven’t heard in forever. I’ll need to listen to it later to be certain.

In other events, I’ll be spending the better part of the weekend in an intensive yoga workshop with my teacher’s teacher, Manouso Manos. Then, in between sessions on Saturday, I have to dash out to the dojo for a green belt pre-test. And sometime in all this I want to find time to see Pan’s Labyrinth as well as a couple more of the Janus films at the Belcourt. Looks like it’s going to be a busy one, I’m sure I’ll be exhausted by Sunday evening — flexible as a rubber band, but exhausted : )

There already *is* a tax on porn. It’s 7% statewide with an additional amount varying by county. You may have heard of it before. We call it the general sales tax. See, it’s called ‘general’ because it’s not specific. By not being specific, you don’t single out some groups of people to pay the share for other groups of people. You don’t like porn*, we get that. Since taxing things we don’t like so that we can shift the burden of government on to other people is apparently OK with you — I don’t like football. What say we have a special tax on Titans apparel & other football related items so that football fans can pay for my share of the government**? I’m also not a Christian, so how ’bout a new tax on Bible sales***?

* Snicker. Sure you don’t. We know thou aren’t just protesting too much.

** Actually, I could make the case for that. Football fans should be the only ones paying for that snazzy stadium y’all built.

*** Actually, you really want to find a new revenue stream to replace food taxes? How ’bout we start honoring the separation of church and state by making churches pay the same taxes the rest of us pay?

Section 220, entitled “Disclosure of Paid Efforts to Stimulate Grassroots Lobbying” imposes onerous reporting requirements that will chill constitutionally protected activity. Advocacy organizations large and small would now find their communications to the general public about policy matters redefined as lobbying and therefore subject to registration and quarterly reporting.

There are only so many vacancies at the top of the pyramid. If you don’t change the shape of the pyramid itself to make it less hierarchical, the only thing you’ll accomplish by giving everybody a master’s degree will be to increase the educational requirements for dragging around a giant block of granite.
– Kevin Carson

Another piece of news just came across the wire, it seems that Ron Paul, the paleo-libertarian congressman from Texas, is announcing a run for the GOP’s 2008 presidential nomination.

Frankly I don’t know what to think of it. I have more than a few disagreements with Dr. Paul to be sure, but compared to anyone else in the field he’s an angel. Of course, chances are remote that he’d get the nomination, and I for one would have no interest working with the rest of his party in the before or after. But it does make for some interesting speculation as to how this might affect the GOP primaries. Paul could simultaneously drain neolibertarian support from Guilliani and paleoconservative support from — well right now the paleos don’t have anyone to speak of but Romney may be their fallback. I look forward to seeing how this actually plays.

UPDATE: Ah, it seems AC already has the scoop.