National Zoo

Crystal, Chuck and I went to the zoo in DC a bit ago. It was a good time, and a beautiful day.

Here are the pics from the trip.

If you ever get the chance, I recommend taking it. Be prepared for a bit of hill climbing, though, as the entire zoo is built on a several hundred foot hill. The baby stroller crowd was very unprepared...

VII

by Wendell Berry

I would not have been a poet
except that I have been in love
alive in this mortal world,
or an essayist except that I
have been bewildered and afraid,
or a storyteller had I not heard
stories passing to me through the air,
or a writer at all except
I have been wakeful at night
and words have come to me
out of their deep caves
needing to be remembered.
But on the days I am lucky
or blessed, I am silent.
I go into the one body
that two make in making marriage
that for all our trying, all
our deaf-and-dumb of speech,
has no tongue. Or I give myself
to gravity, light, and air
and am carried back
to solitary work in fields
and woods, where my hands
rest upon a world unnamed,
complete, unanswerable, and final
as our daily bread and meat.
The way of love leads all ways
to life beyond words, silent
and secret. To serve that triumph
I have done all the rest.

Piano

by Patrick Phillips

Touched by your goodness, I am like
that grand piano we found one night on Willoughby
that someone had smashed and somehow
heaved through an open window.

And you might think by this I mean I'm broken
or abandoned, or unloved. Truth is, I don't
know exactly what I am, any more
than the wreckage in the alley knows
it's a piano, filling with trash and yellow leaves.

Maybe I'm all that's left of what I was.
But touching me, I know, you are the good
breeze blowing across its rusted strings.

What would you call that feeling when the wood,
even with its cracked harp, starts to sing?

Happy non-denominational holiday

http://www.atomicnerds.com/?p=1420

My first post in a while, but I have been busy with trying on life again.

Great Truths often come in small packages

"But surely, for everything you have to love, you have to pay some price." - Agatha Christie

Geek Philosophy

“Oops” is truly a cross platform kind of thing. - Matt Hartley, Lockergnome.com

The problem with Politicians

I have a problem with our electoral process, and, I suppose our political process in general.

The problem illustrated here is that none of our politicians run on campaigns primarily devoted to, "I am so much better than anyone else", but rather on, "I am so much less bad than anyone else".

Logic and intelligence are no longer used to promote good governance, but, rather to present the least undesirable choice as good. Hand in hand with this is a lack of ethical behavior and a willingness to admit our wrong doings and accept the costs.

The United States was once the shining beacon in the world for ethics. Now, our politicians' primary tools are to smear the reputations of their fellows.

I cannot, and would not if I could, say who is responsible for the picture, but what does it say about THEM that they use these tactics?

I use it as an example because it is quick and dirty. If it swung the other way, I would still use it.