i'm doing a linkspam day...

[boogieshoes]

a short note towneleh , first - i offered to write up an essay on my internal process while i searched for, and found, Wicca as my spiritual path.  she asked me today if she'd missed this essay, and no, she didn't.  it's on the list, but i haven't written anything yet, partially because i've been busy, partially because i've been socked by allergies, and mostly because i usually have to be in the mood to wrote stuff like that.  i haven't been in the mood to be thinky lately (see allergies), so i've been crafty instead. :-p  sorry,wneleh .

onto links of random interest i've found today.  first up is a story about MO trying to block the Corps of Engineers from doing a controlled levee opening to allow the flood waters in the Mississippi some place to expand to.

here's the thing:  all along the Mississippi and other major interior rivers, levees have been built to restrain the rivers, in an effort to contain flooding.  each city that builds a levee increases the water levels the cities below them on the river have to deal with.  it would be better, if not necessarily practical at this point, for the cities to build circular walls around the city limits, allowing the river to flow *around* the cities during spring floods while keeping their main living acreage protected.  some smaller towns have these in place, but most places don't.  it's a solution that rather has to be planned and built for, so adding it post-city isn't going to happen.  the other solution to major floods?  you need to open the levees to allow the water to go *somewhere* in a controlled fashion.  remember the floods of '93?  that happened exactly because of the situation we have now:  lots of rain, lots of snowmelt, levees under stress... and breaking. 

so i'm kind of pissed at the state of MO for trying to stop this, especially because the catch basin they want to flood was included specifically for this purpose.  but there's one line in the story that *really* makes me head-desk:  the attorney at one point states that there's a potential for a *lot* of farming acreage to be covered in a silt layer that could take a generation to clean up, and could 'reduce soil nutrients'.  seriously?  we're not in Egypt, and the Mississippi isn't the Nile, but still, the natural cycle is spring flooding, which (surprise, surprise) deposits a layer of silt in the near-river valley lands.  how does he think we got that 15' layer of dirt and mud above the bedrock in the area anyway?  someone, please, smack that man with a fish. 

the second story link i ran across today was this one in which we see Republicans being complete idiots about sex education - this time in Massachusetts.  i'm a small-l libertarian by political philosophy, so i have issues with both the Democratic and Republican parties.  this time, i laughed a lot at stupid Republicans being stupid.  then i bookmarked the website they were trying to shut down - i'm not sure you can ever know enough about sex ed, and the nieces are getting to the age of asking about that stuff.  they haven't asked the crazy aunt yet, but it's good to be prepared.

third, it looks like another era is at an end.  i felt sad like this when the last wells-fargo telegram was sent, and when the trains dispensed with cabooses.  it's not that progress isn't good, it's that i have fond memories of the old ways.  also, why i own things like a 1915 Singer treadle sewing machine.  i'm going to have to get a typewriter soon, just to do it.  probably, i'll keep a little pad of paper and pencil by it to remind visitors to my library that in the *way* olden days, people took notes by hand!

4th, something that makes me really angry: these horses were killed to 'punish' a man for being gay. 

whatever your beliefs about anything, attacking, torturing, and killing an innocent animal to 'get back at' the person who offends your beliefs is possibly the most cowardly, yellow-bellied thing you can do.  not that i want anyone to be beaten up for being gay, but at least people who attack other *people* are "facing their fears", to some degree. not that it makes it right or better, morally...  and i don't mean to say that animal rights come before people rights, either, but there's something truly offensive and disgusting about hurting animals who are looking towards the human race in general and particular to see to their needs.  someone needs to stick these doofuses in the gaza strip with a big target painted on their backs, a homing signal attached to them, and no weapons whatsoever.  eesh.

enough of the rough stuff.  although i should have known i'd find some interesting things today because i walked out of the door to hear a literal cat-fight in progress.  our apartment complex has free-ranging cats, and the all-black one is king of the hill.  or at least, the warm spot underneath the cars.  there was growling, hissing, spitting, and yowling, and then the black king chased a tabby across the parking lot.  as i was pulling onto the main road in the complex, i saw another standoff, with another tabby (i think) trying to negotiate his way across a 'territory' held by a mother cat guarding her kittens.  dramatical cats are not jelly-cole cats, methinks.

*yawns*  well, work time.  i've been working on a story-let about Chris, bad-a$$ leader of the ATF 7, taking Wednesday lunches with his stitching club at a local needlework shop.  the idea is based on the 'Monday Bunch' from Monica Ferris's needlework mystery series, which features a needlework shop called 'Crewel World'.  thought it'd be a good little vignette about a private-Chris moment.  it's all in my head, but maybe it should be put on paper.  we'll see.

-bs

Comments

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

The idea of Larabee and needlework is strangely hypnotic... :)

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

*grins* yeah, it is. but i harbor a secret fantasy that he's good at it, and it's a good distraction when the boys are otherwise driving him to drink.

-bs

[slavelabour.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Chris fic! You should drabble that! I love when fic goes against type for characters!

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

well, short-fic, anyway. i think i'm physically incapable of a mere 100 words...

and oddly - or perhaps not so oddly - i'm not the only one who has Chris cross-stitching. there's a gal who wrote a story for a 'hidden talents' challenge that had Chris doing a cross-stitch design of Pony. and i spied a reference to that same piece in another ATF story by another writer. which is kind of awesome. :-D

ETA: but i know what you mean about 'against type', since 'macho men' don't cross-stitch much here in america. not so stigmatized across the pond, though.

-bs