Not So Deep Thoughts

Hopefully some people still have yet to see this…

I have a confession.   I haven’t been blogging much because I’ve been spending my free time obsessively sifting through any and all available political blogs to keep up with the spectacle taking place on the political stage back over in the US.

It’s like watching a car crash; the more awful it is, the longer you stand around to see what carnage is delivered.

And this election is delivering.

McCain’s camp said that this election will not be about the issues.  And as much as I wish that weren’t true, I’m convinced it is.

Any mention of an issue, regardless of if it is of little or no practical relevance to the American people or economy, is used to wedge you in deeper into one camp or the other.  Calling the other one out on any given issue is fair game as long as you get to knock them down a peg in front of your faithful followers.

In attempts to understand both groups I’ve tried to cross the non-existent middle ground from one side to the other only to find steadfast loyalists who’ll bend anything said, done, promised or implied into fuel for their fire or venom to spit in the faces of their opponents, regardless of its validity.

Rational thought has been replaced by talking points. Say it loud enough and repeatedly and people will just assume it’s true.

Investigative journalism, fact checking and calling for accountability within the media is sparse or rarely followed up.

90% of the nation is neatly divided in two and separated, outside hearing distance of each other. Walls take representative’s stead, to which the other side talks when engaging in debate.

90% of the nation who’ll sit back and watch how the other 10% decide the winner. And when it all over, the losing half will likely sooner scream out resentful moans of disillusionment before joining together and embracing the winner.

I’m thinking about the aftermath. Be he Obama or McCain the President, the nation is going to need a huge band-aid to heal the gash that has and continues to rip the nation in two; and the President will have to be the one to kiss it to make it all better.

I’m not so naïve as to believe that either candidate is as goodly as they paint themselves to be, but I’ve noticed an awful tendency in the McCain camp. Both engage in muddy politics but the republicans are masterful at it. Both sides have halve-truthed and misquoted, but the only republicans have managed to regularly turn my stomach with it.

The extent to which the republicans are willing to go to win this election by slander and not by stance says A LOT about the people they are and how they get things done. These are not the people I want bringing the people of the US together after this election. Obama, if anything, has not stooped nearly as low as McCain in this dirty game we call politics and has proved time and again that he can move the human spirit to join together.

The last thing I want to see my country become is a perpetual breeding ground of intolerance and bigotry.

Hold on one second…

I’ve just made my first ever political contribution – and it went to Barack Obama.

Let’s hope it does some good.

So, I’ve just spent the last week bumming around Nathan and Edurne’s pad, down here in Albondon, Spain; going down to the beach, sitting around the terrace, composing, taking walks, playing video games, reading, just lazing about really.

And I’ve been so busy doing these certain types of nothing that I haven’t had ‘time’ to do anything with my blog.

Funny, whether I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off or lounging around the house, it’s still a trial to get this blog running.

Well, at least next week I’ll have an excuse.  Vanesa and I are taking off in a few minutes to head off to a house on the coast in the south-east of Spain.  We’ll be there pretty much until we feel like going back to Madrid or we have to start working (Aug 28th.)

And there’s no internet in this house!  So, I finally have an excuse for not updating.

See you in September!!!!

Happy Summering!

Paul

Tee hee

Last night I got a phone call from my father informing me that his mother-in-law Bombi had just passed away.

Bombi and Papa, husband and wife since they were two bright eyed youngins, together formed the nucleus of the Cassinari family. And when my father married Carol, they were first in line to invite us 4 siblings into the clan.

Bombi was a real marvelous woman. She would light up any room she came into. One look at that smile of hers in the picture above will pretty much explain that. She will be missed, and she’ll be thought of often and fondly for many years to come.

I’ve a candle burning for her, Papa, Carol, Dad and the rest of the family who are surely open to any white light that can be sent their way.

Much love to you all.

Paul

Tee hee!!!  Makes me wish I had at least minored in Philosophy whilst I was at university.  Nevertheless, I got a good giggle out of it.

Back in the homeland, my sister, the photographer, introduced me to the magazine JPG - a magazine whose content is made up of submissions made by the subscribers/members of the website. Basically, you create a user and upload the best of your photos that suit the themes that have created for future publications of the magazine.

The users submit a photo to a theme (Next Edition: Noir, Split Second, Surrounding) and the community votes Yes (Right on!) or No (Not this time).  After weeks of voting the most popular of the 1,000s of photos submitted rise to the top and the editors  choose their picks.

Meanwhile, users leave comments, props, add various photos to their ‘favorites’ list and in general keep the atmosphere positive and enjoyable.

So, me and my other 3 siblings are now competing to see who’s the first to get published.  I have a few decent photos up that are hoping will make the cut, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that y’all will sign up and vote Right On for all my photos no matter how cruddy they may be.

Back to work and onto coffee #3.

It’s almost 8AM and that jetlag was frickin’ relentless.

Did get a few hundred pages through my book though…  That’s a plus.

This is going to be a fun day.

It’s 4:00 in the morning and I’ve been stirring in my bed, unable to drift back into sleep and unable to think about anything other than a snippet of a dream that I was able to snatch during a moment of sleep I managed to get and which is why I’m sitting here in the dark, squinting into the brightness of a computer monitor, just so I can get it out of my head and onto ‘paper.’

The dream of which I speak is one where I started off fighting urban warfare style in an elite military special-op squad and ended up in ‘a place’ seeing (foreseeing?) how I’m going to propose to my wife. I know I’m single and far off from getting hitched, but I’ve always had a soft spot for those stories we hear about how so-and-so proposed to his lady so-and-so. The kind of story like where a young lady awaits her boyfriend’s arrival at an airport terminal just outside his gate (back in the day), and when the plane lands and the people start to appear from the jetway, she sees each one exit holding a rose in their hand. They are looking at a small picture which they’re holding with the other hand and, after scanning the crowd, they all begin to walk towards her. Each one gives her a rose and passes on without a word. Once every last person from the plane has done so, she looks towards the gate, arms overflowing with roses, to see her boyfriend, beaming at her and holding a small black box in his hand, and he asks her to marry her. ::cue tears::  Well, that’s what kinda dream it was

I too often hear about a couple pre-planning a marriage so much, that the presentation of the engagement ring is more like an expected formality rather than unanticipated popping of The Question., which, in my opinion, takes all the fun out of it. Ask first, plan later, I say. If she says no, then I hope I have a receipt. But there’s always something nice about a romantic and imaginative, yet not cheesy, way of proposing to someone.

So, how did I do it, you ask? Well, that would take all the fun out of it. Plus, what if she reads this? Then it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now would it? So, if you or anyone you know is a 6-foot-tall Chinese woman with curly blonde hair and with one blue eye and one green eye, let me know.

Oh, and I’m back from the states safe and sound. A nice and pleasant trip back home it was. Photos to come soon.

Ok. There. Done. Out of my head. Now, if only this obnoxious jetlag will let me go back to sleep.