Is a blessing that's withdrawn a curse? - An imperfect day

I have to say that I'm pretty bummed today and strangely, it was a really good day at the start.

Beautiful weather, a nice bike ride, found a couple of free bike seats for the baby on the road and then a guy called and said he wanted to take Ghost.

We met. It seemed perfect - lots of land, another Shepherd on the farm, a really nice family.

But it was, I'm convinced, too quick. After we left Ghost bit their dog and has been aggressive with him. So, it's off and this blessing is withdrawn. I pick up Ghost tom orrow morning. He's a sweet dog and I think he got scared after we left. Lonely for us and in a new environment. Nothing smelled like home.

More on this later.

The big Free sale!

Becky and I are giving away all sorts of free gifts. We're cleaning out our home of stuff we don't use. Want something, check out this link to Craigslist Free Stuff and email us.

It's all going, going gone!

Ho Ho Ho.

Let us do the shopping for you. Ill conceived gifts from the land of misfit toys.

The Last Ride

I’m on I-71 and I see a sign saying, “THE LAST RIDE.” Passing the grated trailer, I see it’s a semi full of pigs on their way to slaughter.

It’s too dark and I can’t see their faces. These are anonymous animals with nothing to do but die.

An NPR talk show plays on my car radio, and people discuss whether Bush could be swayed that we’re losing the Iraq war or what would need to happen for us to win. I think of the anonymous soldiers — too many have died for us to remember their names — and I recall what the first woman elected to Congress, Jeanette Rankin, said back in the first half of the 20th century: “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”

That’s what all the pundits and politicians aren’t getting. It’s not just this war, it’s any war. It’s not winning or losing, but at best mitigating the bloodshed. It’s all slaughter; and if we’re to survive, as a species, we need to learn how to do something else. Otherwise we’re all just anonymous, in the dark and on our last ride.

— Stephen Carter-Novotni

Ken and Laura Oster's wedding video

From December 21, 2005 at the Brown House.

Now at google video.

- Steve

Out of the tunnel and in the can

I've arrived from the tunnel vision of my illness.

The flu is largely behind me, though I carry a nagging cough as a souvenir. Uly has a cough, too, but, like mine, it's almost past.

The illness was like a slow motion bullet, passing through my wife, my son and then me. My consolation in getting sick was that it was through with them, at least.

I purchased a DVD RW drive and can finally do all that serious film editing that I wanted to do. The Oster wedding video was first and I'll post a link to the Youtube vid when it's up.

- Steve

Seeking a home for Ghost

Becky and I are looking for a home for Ghost.

Ghost, if you haven't met him, is a 3-year-old White German Shepherd (or mix, favoring this breed) that we found in 2004.

Ups: Ghost is lovable and very gentle, good with children. He's the most beautiful dog I've ever seen. Wants to play and will let you hold him like a baby, if you can. Very intelligent and loyal. He looks intimidating and would defend you. He plays well with other dogs.

Downs: He sheds white hair, he is a bit of a Marmaduke type and gets excited. He jumps up on people sometimes, though he is easily controlled with the threat of a spray bottle. He can jump a chain link fence, so a privacy fence or leashed walks are needed.

Also: Ghost is 70 lbs and a big dog. He needs daily exercise and companionship. He's a good dog for someone active and who has experience with dogs. He is not a good choice for a first dog.

Please tell us a bit about yourself and why you could give him a good home.

Why: We love him, but with the new baby, he hasn't had much attention and it doesn't look like that will change. We're seeking a home with a loving family that will give Ghost a lifetime home. He'll return the favor with love and kisses and friendship.

Steve and Becky Novotni

Landing Place: Arrival

So we swung into LP community at about10pm and stayed up talking 'til midnight.

It feels a lot like home - the Brownhouse - the same way Sojourners does in SF. Three adults and a little boy, Micah, live in this home. There are three more community houses that make up LP and a number of folks who have their own apartments, too.

We're staying in Patience's room. She's from Boston, originally. I think she speaks French - there's an Amelie poster on the wall and (more compelling evidence towards this theory) there's a phrase glued to her laptop:

douce comme un ange respondant le bonheur et un sourire partout oi elle va

Babel fish translates this to:

soft like an angel respondant happiness and a smile everywhere oi it goes

What a relief it is to be away from home, even if it's only a hundred miles.

We spoke about power at church a couple of weeks ago...

...and it's been on my mind since.

I thought, during this discussion, that the role of an anarchist is to destabalize power when we see it in others and surrender it when we see it in ourselves.

As a journalist, my role is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. I really enjoy that affliction part.

Here's some awsome lyrics from Bikini Kill's song, Rebel Girl. Uly likes to doze to this:

That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood
She's got the hottest trike in town
That girl she holds her head up so high
I think I wanna be her best friend

Rebel Girl, Rebel Girl
Rebel Girl you are the queen of my world
Rebel Girl, Rebel Girl
I think I wanna take you home
I wanna try on your clothes

When she walks, the revolution's coming
In her hips, there's revolution
When she talks, I hear the revolution
In her kiss, I taste the revolution

Rebel Girl, Rebel Girl
Rebel Girl you are the queen of my world
Rebel Girl, Rebel Girl
I think I wanna take you home
I wanna try on your clothes

That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood
I got news for you -- she is!
They say she's a slut, but I know
She is my best friend

Rebel Girl, Rebel Girl, Rebel Girl...
I really like you, I really love you
I really wanna be your best friend
Love you like a sister always
Soul sister, blood sister
Please be my rebel girl

The Ohio to Erie Trail: the road from Columbus to London

This is a brief description of the bicycle ride I took with my buddy Sam a couple of weeks back. I didn't find a lot online describing this leg of the Ohio to Erie bike trail, so I wanted to make some notes for my future use and that of other riders.

Equipment: We rode mountain bikes with chromoly frames and aluminum rims. Mine is a 5-year-old Diamondback with front shocks. Sam’s was a 20-year-old Ross, stiff frame.

The Ohio to Erie Trail
The first thing you should know is that the Ohio to Erie trail, which stretches from the Ohio River to Lake Erie (hence the name), is a 325 mile, limited access, paved trail for bikes, skaters, equestrians and peds that is supposed to be about 70 percent complete.

Much of the trail is built on train tracks. Other parts run the path of the old Erie Canal. (I believe this is called the Towpath trail, stretching north of Columbus, though I haven't ridden this section yet. You may recall that donkeys and horses towed boats along the canal, hence this name.

Context
As I understand it, there are trails like this webbing the whole US. I would like very much to ride cross country with my son, Ulysses, one day.

Starting at 64 King
64 King is the address and home to our friends, the Landing Place community. LP is an intentional Christian community like the one in which my wife Becky and I live - Vineyard Central.


Sam and I left at about 7 a.m. on a cold Saturday morning. Heading west from the intersection of High Street and King, near Ohio State University Campus, we rode about a mile to the Olentangy River. A bike path, with several dead ends, eventually leads to the Scioto river. From there, we opted to take 40 West - West Broad Street from Downtown. The trail may continue a bit here, but we were not certain how far. Part of it, a bridge, was being torn down. I'd be very interested in any info anyone has on this leg of the trail. Earlier we ran into a section that was closed by barbed wire and chain link fence. Why is this? Strange. At the Scioto River we encountered a full scale replica (surprisingly small) of the Santa Maria. Many homeless sleeping at the riverbank, too.



We travelled 40 West for about 8 miles to the intersection of I-270, the city's beltway. This part was a lot of sidewalk riding. Pretty flat. Lots of places to eat or use the bathroom.

Just before I-270, we dropped south on Georgesville Road - highway riding, limited berm. Drivers were reasonable and got over for us, but I don't like narrow, 1 foot shoulders. It gets rural at this point. We took Georgesville Road to Aikire Road and headed Southwest to Georgesville.

***If you break down – On Georgesville Road, just south of 40W, there's a Meijer. We picked up a tire there when Sam’s innertube began to bulge through the sidewall. From now on we’ll carry spares, but Meijer is a godsend. Next closest places for civilization and bike parts are London and Columbus.

**Bring extra water – even on a cold day (50 degrees) we drank a lot and could have had more if we had been carrying it.

Georgesville was unremarkable. We hitched a ride for part of this because the road was a two lane highway. We came this route, btw, because we were searching for the trail between downtown Columbus and Lily Chapel. It doesn't exist here yet, as far as I can tell.

Aikire Road leads to Lily Chapel. It becomes Lily Chapel-Georgesville Road. Train tracks run parallel to this road. Will that be the trail one day? Any readers with advice on this, please comment.

In the town of Lily Chapel, which looks very small and quiet to me - lots of farms, not much industry - we proceeded towards the large grain silo (some sort of tall, cyclidrical structure, anyway) that marks the center of town. We headed straight past the cross road that leads to the towers and on to CR-103/Wilson Road. We made a right on Wilson and headed toward and then past a radio tower. Just past the tower is the trailhead of the Lily Chapel trail.


The Lily Chapel to London Trail
This is a very difficult stretch. I'd guess it's 12 miles long. All of it is gravel, which makes any sort of travel very difficult. We spent a lot of energy grinding rocks and moving very slowly. There are no amenities except beautiful scenery and peace. Bring extra water for this stretch. Private residences don't appear until you're a couple of miles from London.



We arrived in London at 5 p.m. It's a quick left off the trail and then the first right on 665 (the Lily Chapel trail runs roughly parallel to 665) We were dazed from the long ride and took a left at first. Our minds played tricks on us. There's plenty of good food and stops in this town, when you take the right turn. We ate at Ronetti's, a fine little Italian place with big pizzas and reasonably priced beer.

45-50 Miles at 10 hours. Slow going. We slept really well at the end of the day.

Just a short poem

I see now
My soul
As a city
Thick with change
And every old quarter
In her first trappings
Of spring
Remains in the fullness
And still of the new day
And the shadows of my new life
Are cast upon the grain of the old
It’s all there
And will be
I’m all that I’ve ever been
And am

(Some thoughts on all the previous selves I've ever been...)

Steve

The Reenactment of Mary Ellen's birth

Ok, so our friend Mary Ellen is our new housemate. She moved in to the newly constructed room in our basement just a few days ago.

Anyway, when she got here, she brought with her a picture from her birth - her mom and dad and a baby Mary E. -- she's 25 now. Well, as you can see, Mary Ellen and her sister Janet are the spitting image of their parents and Beck and I have a baby, so we can reenact the birth!

Here is the first test shots...the original, the performance by Mary E and her sister and the photoshopped result.

- Steve

Uly in his Misfits outfit

It's homemade, as all good punk gear should be.

You stones you rocks you worse than sensless things

Please join me in boycotting disposable diapers.

Forget that cloth is easier, cheaper and greener -- disposables hold nothing very well.

Let's put the disposable diaper manufacturers out of business...send them back to constructing North Korean swimwear or whatever else they make.

I recall a certain 18th Century Frenchman deriding the so-called prophalactics of his day, saying that they were, "...gossamer against infection, steel against love."

Yup, Pampers keeps the little ones just as clean.

Electric bikes and baby

Check back in a couple of days for a description of the ride. We made it about 50 miles to London, OH.

In the meanwhile, check out this film:

An Electric Bicycle conversion

Landing Place to VC part 1: The only way to imagine the unimaginable is to do it

Just woke up after 4.5 hrs sleep and I'm having a hard enough time navigating the kitchen at our sister community, Landing Place, much less an amorphous bike trail.

See, we know that there's a solid, unbroken bike trail between Loveland a Xenia - 50 miles. I rode that with Oster last year. (I should say we crash landed in Xenia because our equipment and bodies were at their limit.) We know how to get from Loveland to Norwood, and we are told the trail continues to London, OH. The only thing is, this site appears to not have been updated since 2004, noting that stretches of this section will be finished by 2005 or 2006. What's up with that??

So, we made a cruder map from the already crude maps on their site, using Google maps to assist. I think we'll find our way. We depart shortly. It's now 6:30am.

- Steve

A Letter on Pregnancy...Two Months Too Late!

Dear Patient Blog Readers,

I am proud to say that I am finally posting after two full years of blatant blogger delinquincy! The last post I made was about preparing for our wedding. Okay, so I've been busy...but, no more excuses! I, BECKY, am posting this letter that I wrote to my friend Stella - who lives in sunny San Francisco - two months ago, but never got around to sending until after baby was born. I would like to start blogging regularly along with my partner in crime if at all possible. So... I'm asking you to hold me accountable for this. In other words, if I see you on a regular basis, bug me about writing so that I occasionally do so. Sorry for the long hiatus. I hope you enjoy this discourse on pregnancy...

Hey, Stella,

How is life treating you in beautiful San Francisco? I'm working a short-term temp assignment in downtown Cincy today, and had some extra time to email. Upon purging my account of old junk, I realized that I really needed to say hey to you.
Believe it or not, baby is due in 4 days! I have this big, full-grown human being rumblin' in my huge belly. I do love being pregnant, but I must say that I'm ready to have this little guy. We've decided to name him Ulysses Jonas Novotni. His nickname will be Uly. I can already tell you that he is a thoughtful, contemplative person - a thinker - but he also likes to play games and tricks. When I play with him, for example, he always waits before responding, and will trick me and others into thinking that he is not going to respond. He's so funny! And he's big. The midwives think he may already be eight pounds.
It really is a lot of work to take care of a baby in your belly. (As I'm sure it will also be when he's out) I must share: Every day (if I even have time to do all of these things) I have to: take prenatal vitamins, keep my feet up, drink a gallon of water ( I try but can't), do Kegels, perineal massage, slow breathing exercises, relaxation techniques, stretching and prenatal exercises, interaction with bebe, lots of nutritious foods - especially protein, calcium and iron, clean and get baby stuff ready, sometimes work, have a life and walk, walk walk...
It's cool, but sometimes tiring. I can't sleep on my back or stomach at all. I have to use a wedge pillow to sleep in a semi-reclined position or on my side (preferably the left side due to blood flow to the baby). I weigh 185 pounds, mostly in my huge belly, so I actually waddle instead of walking. My ankles and hands are very swollen, and two of my right fingers are numb most of the time.
On a practical and spiritual level, pregnancy has changed my life. It has taught me how people are supposed to live to be healthy. It's an amazing and beautiful gift. Some of this wisdom is related to physical health. Eating smaller meals throughout the day, for example, instead of big traditional meals, is one thing that pregnancy necessitates due to the fact that the stomach of a pregnant woman has less room because of the pressure from the uterus. How often have you heard that it's good to drink tons of water? Lots of water in pregnancy is important for circulation (pregnant women actually have 50% more blood in their bodies), fetal temperature, amniotic fluid volume and more. Walking is the best exercise known to woman - pregnant or not. No alcohol or caffeine is generally a good rule to follow during pregnancy. (Yeah, technically, I could have alcohol now that I'm in my third tri-mester, but I try to limit my consumption to a minimal amount.) The jury's still out on caffeine, but research has shown that it is likely to cause birth defects in some capacity. So, I feel like pregnancy has taught me what I normally should be doing to take care of myself. I actually feel a lot better doing these things too, which is no surprise.
Emotionally, pregnancy has done wonders for me. I'm hardly ever upset or anxious. Other women I know say that they were the same way during pregnancy due to the hormonal shift. However, more interestingly, pregnant women have to avoid stress or stressful environments for the health of their babies. So this helps with this state of mind and actually shows me how I should normally be mentally.
The breath of life. Breathing - This is the foundation and beginning of life. I can't wait to hear my son take his first breath. Pregnancy teaches women how to breath to relieve stress. This can be achieved through slow breathing techniques or meditation. Practicing breathing has cut down on my stress and anxiety levels tremendously. Simple, basic things: water, movement, breathing, simplicity. How cool.
But that's not all. Getting pregnant has forced Steve and I to settle for less crap and clean up our personal and financial affairs. No, we don't care to get in the middle of family disputes. Yes, we will actually pay our bills on time and settle our debts once and for all. Yeah, dishes get washed every day now. In pregnancy, they call this the nesting instinct - that is - the tendancy to get your nest in order. Steve is nesting these days just as much as I am. He built a taller fence in our backyard so the dog wouldn't scale it anymore. He shampooed the living room area rug that we got for free off of Craig's List. He waters the outdoor plants and weeds the garden. He built an undergroud composting system where we can compost both food and (yuck) pet waste. He's getting more regular work from CityBeat.

Humility (a mammalian trait) is superior to subterfuge (reptilian)

We, as a species, must evolve if we are to survive.

These things:

Agression, hostility, war, hierarchy, lies, superstition

These are reptilian brain things that lie deep within our skulls. And they harm us more than they serve us.

Science, I'll wager, is the most important thing children should learn, after compassion and kindness. Certainly before religion. Look at what our so called Christian nation has wrought onto this planet. Religion, without the humility that education brings is a perverse monster and it perverts god into a sword.

We are the chief terrorists led by a tin plated despot.

But maybe asking how we help these people evolve is nobler than asking how we depose them.

Steve

Czars, Sam and Angela and Griswolds

Sunday was a tremendously beautiful day that started off with me in a tremendously bad mood.

We were on our way to Jay and Stacey Czars place for brunch, which I've gathered is a regular thing over at their home on Sundays, and were running late. Get the baby out the door. Grab a contribution to the brunch. (Stacey said not to worry too much, but I never cared for arriving empty handed.) Wow, it's 10 minutes 'till we're supposed to be there and the place is 15 minutes away. Art show in the way - SR 561 is blocked off. Alternate route and I'm so friggin mad! And why? It's a gorgeous, warm, sunny Sunday and I'm eating with friends, riding with other friends, and taking it easy the whole day long. What's the mad crazy rush?

It was all me. Nobody else was that kind of rushed. What is that neurotic node in my brain? It's a mystery, I told Beck, which all the great mysteries are. Internal, I mean.

Jay and Stacey have a lovely home, a large apartment with natural light aplenty, overlooking the Ohio River. Panoramic, big picture views. Four video monitors at one desk for video work, internet and whatever else Jay works on. (I bet Stacey has a laptop and a separate work area, but I didn't ask.

They cooked food like pros. Wow. Fine dining including Jay's gently assembled alcoholic drinks that you can down on a Sunday morning without feeling like a wino, Stacey's crepes (I think. Whatever they were, they were awesome.) and nice company. It was a real pleasure to reconnect with our old friends and introduce them to the baby. We also met Joy, a chemist who works on the Blues Fest, Jan, who is Jay Kalagayan's fiance, and Sara, who digs Sarah Vowell. (Sorry for these limited biographies. They were cool folks and more than these collections of words can express.) Good conversation on Ira Glass' recent visit on Writer's weekend and how the best question for Glass came from a homeless woman down at Inktank.

Sam and Angela and I ride 20 miles on the Miami trail (a rails to trails run) from south of Milford up to Branch Hill Road in Loveland. I'm practicing for the 100 miles to Columbus.

Beck and I spent the eveining with the Griswolds and their super kids. Relaxed and fun evening. Everyone had that same, wow I'm tired and hardly ready for the new week vibe. Sara G. verbalized this and was our overworked representative. Jeremiah is working on a stack of cool, post modern fiction (or at least one book) and we shared some parenting discussion over drinks.

Beck and I slept at 9:30 and here I am, 2am, up again. Trying to make the best of it. I think I might have one friend, Mark Flannigan, who I could call this late, but I don't know. Is it too late, Mark?

- Steve

Fixed Uly's swing...sorta

So Uly has this awesome swing...

I bumped into it two days ago and knocked it over, damaging the motherboard (modest though it may be) so that it functioned only erratically.

Anyway, I thought, lets cut out the digital middleman and install a rehostat (that's the knobby dially thing that turns the dining room lights up and down)

Enter me to Radio Shack and a $2.99 volume control knob. Two hours and a sliced up middle finger later, it works -- sorta.

It's too fast and the control too sensitive. The volume control is a potentiometer, not exactly a rehostat, but I don't know the difference.

Back to the drawing board. ("And Pa goes sailin' thru the winder!")

- Steve

I am a chaos junkie

I just emailed two guys who need a ride to Dayton for a 5am flight. Told 'em I'd do it for $60...but it's really for the adventure. I'm sick, I know it.

Steve

There's a difference between straw and hay

I'm a city boy. I didn't know that, but now I do.

I want straw for Ghost to sleep on, not hay. Hay is dried grass and legumes that animals eat. Straw is an agricultural byproduct, the dry stalk of a cereal plant, after the nutrient grain or seed has been removed.

Thanks, wikipedia.

Oh, I also found out that I was guilty of another reality inversion. I woke early today to go to Reading Feed to but straw and dog food, but they open at 9 am, not 6 am.

Ok, I'll go back later.

Citybeat stuff to do today and care of Uly, of course, too.

- Steve

New bike, good weather and our anniversary

We're on some down time here at my mom's place. Beck is feeding Uly and we're getting ready to head out to celebrate our second wedding anniversary.

I picked up a new mountain bike today from Craigslist. It turns out it's cheaper ($40) to buy someone elses hardly used bike than fixing mine ($100+). The bike is a 1997 Diamondback with rockshocks on the front and nobby tires. It's ultralight chromoly and aluminum and - wow - it's the fastest, lightest bike I've ever owned. When new, this baby sold for around $1,000. I found a review online - the cops use it in a couple of cities and everyone else thinks it kicks ass. I am a devotee now, too.

Elizabeth's boyfriend Sam - who just recently moved here from Lubbock Texas - and Angela Pancela, from St. Louis, joined me on a ride downtown from Norwood. Angela had to double back after we made it to Broadway Commons. Sam and I went on to Newport, Covington, Downtown Cincy, Findlay Market, Liverty Hill and then back home to Norwood. Great ride.

Beck and I are going out to a mexican place tonight. I'll let you know what we think about Cancun later on...

- Steve

"Wolverine: I'm the best there is at what I do." or "Why I am through with bullshit."

I've been getting serious about lots 'o' stuff as of late, what with my new midget boss and all.

The revelation of the week came to me early Monday morning, as I was laying on an examination table with the lights off.

"I'm not going to get my blood pressure to go down far enough," I thought. "I should just get home. I'm already late...breathe, calm...that's good...why am I still here?"

See, I had to get by blood pressure down really low, like 130 over 70 or something, to be in this stupid E Coli study. It pays $800. It's like found money if I do it all. I can work while they experiment on me and learn what it's like to be in a research study...Richard Rodruigez, the mexican Tarantino, financed his first film this way.

Yeah, all this stuff is running through my mind and my BP is going nowhere slow. I flash back to Sunday afternoon, as I tell my insanely funny joke about my buddy Andy being scattered and smart and Kev laughs that I'm that way, too...

"I need to leave. This is bullshit."

"But it'd be so cool! I could write on my laptop while I'm innoculated with the attenuated bacteria...you know, the same one that's killed two people this week and caused the spinich shortage."

Yeah.

See, I'm not a house painter or a serious designer or a professional apartment broker or a guinea pig for that matter.

I do a couple of things well: Writing, reporting, photography. I need to stick with those and stop dallying...at least as much as I have.

Sheesh!

Anyway, I am reworking Goxray.com for the eventuality that I'll be doing just what I do best and not a lot of other crap that I may be cery interested in, but shouldn't pursue for money. Check it out if you would, and tell me what you think of the design in progress.

There's so much more I'd like to say on this blog...

...and here's what's distracting me. :)

How much of our wealth is on others' backs?

It's a sleepy 6:20 in the morning here and I just took Ghost for a walk around the neighborhood. As I walked I was considering Jeremiah's post regarding the upcoming Starving Jesus event next week at Vineyard Central.

I wonder how much of our lives in this empire are on the backs of others. Certainly, in my gut, I think a lot of it must be. Overnight I used plastic bottles to feed Uly. Where did the oil come from that made those bottles and who were the workers that mined it? How did that bottle get so cheap? The formula he ate and the Wheaties that I ate and the yogurt that went on top - what's the true cost of all this? Sure, it costs me $1.99 for a quart of that yogurt, but what happened between the cow and whatever it ate and my cereal?

I heard, recently, on NPR that the corn it takes to make 20 gallons of gas could feed a person for an entire year. That's a lot of food turned into a little convenience. Becky and I spoke about how much more we appreciate the volume of energy we are expending in a car through our travels on bike.

We know how much effort it is to push just our body, our bike and a small load of cargo a few miles. It's real work. How much more so do these cars expend when they can move five people and a full trunk with ease?

We always seem to assume the worst
As I walked this morning my eyes were drawn like moths to windows with lights on. I didn't see anyone or do a any peeping tom routines, I just looked. This made me think of when I was in sixth grade, waiting for the school bus on the corner of Coronado and Zula. There was a house on that corner there with a family and young kids (younger than sixth grade). I remember that it was raining and the mom let me and this kid named Mike Smith stand on her porch. I think we were invited. Anyway, one day it was raining and we sheltered on her porch and their picture window had the drapes drawn and on of her kids was watching a cartoon. Mike and I watched through the window and laughed at whatever was going on in the toon. The mom stormed out and angrily chastized us for looking in her window and, well, I don't know what she thought, but I felt really bad for something I shouldn't have felt bad about.

I meditated, as I walked today what assuming the best and assuming the worst gets me in life.

I'm riding my bicycle every day now. I'd like to walk Ghost as much, too. The only thing anything ever gets easy is if you do it every day - dog walking, exercise, health food - even drug abuse is a lot of work until it becomes the daily grind. Habits...

- Steve

Tools of the trade

When I was a kid I thought it was important to have three tools on my person every day: A Swiss Army Knife (preferably not its generic equivalent that fell apart), a Zippo lighter and a -- what was it called? It's been so long since I cared about this -- oh, right, a Mag Light flashlight.

I believed, with those devices, one could do pretty much whatever needed to be done and, while I still think these are realy cool, I have none of them any more.

I bring this up because I thought I'd share about one of the tools I've found most useful in my life today. Almost all are virtual.(We are living in an immaterial world and I am an immaterial boy)

Craigslist.org

Things I have aquired on this marvelous site include our awesome tenant, Tony Nauman - we had our pick of awesome applicants in one week! - our leather sofa($300), several ultracheap, nice laptops ($35 to $150) including the one I'm on now and...

- free plants and beautiful stone look pots
- free drywall, like 10 sheets
- a new bike rack for the car
- free bicycles
- cheap, nice used bikes
- our motorcycle
- printers
- our privacy fence ($50 with a gate!)
- The Heineken umbrella in the back
- free paving stones and gravel
- our leather recliner ($50)
- a free camping backpack
- a Sony digital video cam - $125 - this was from a guy who worked 15 years in retail who decided to run off to work on a dude ranch
- a free water bottle with a thermal case

- Jobs - we painted a small house for $1200, we're working tomorow at the vollyball pro exhibition to set up for $14 an hour, Beck pimped Pokemon, I moved furniture, we did landscaping, also.

So, you know I found my 1973 Honda Scrambler Motorcycle on Clist of $200 and bought it from a guy named Steve Miller who purchased it from Clifton resident Paul McCartney -- well several weeks later I saw a 4 mp digicam listed for $15...read about how these finds intersected here.

This week we traded a laptop I scored for little cash for a newer fridge.

I also found rides and contacts along the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. It;s an awesome site.

- Steve

First date without the baby, need a date with a plumber

Becky and I went to the Cincinnati Entertainment Awards (CEA) last night at the Corbett (sp?) theater on UC Campus. It was our first date without Uly. My mom, very kindly, agreed to watch him for the evening.

We had a nice time - it was a fun, if predictable, awards show (not predictable as in who won - I'm fairly theater illiterate - but predictable as in the way an awards show goes - cheesy jokes, women in evening gowns, men in tuxes. There was a fellow, an older guy with white hair and a big droopy jacket - from CCM - who was quite funny. One of the women who presented the awards was very funny, flirting on stage with another white haired guy. I heard she was fired mid-show, which would have been silly, if that's what happened.)

We saw many of the usual suspects - James Czar and Sean Mummert, the Citybeat crew. It was all very cool. We rode around campus a bit, too.

This weekend we have a plumbing project to complete. Is anyone handy with pipes? I could use some help.

Bike riding, radio riding and then some

This was a pretty sweet day today. I rode from Norwood to Covington in about 40 minutes. I was speeding, of course - as much as one can on a bicycle. It was fun to make the trip and I felt great for doing it.

My target was Covington City Hall. I met with their City Manager, Jay Fossett, and, after an interview about the city's new art district, we took a bike ride to check it out. He had a classic, red Huffy cruiser. Normally I hate Huffy and I hate one-speeds, but I have to admit, it was a pretty sweet looking bike. You'll probably see photos of it in next week's Citybeat, along with my story.

Anyway, we had a nice ride and met with a lot of folks who are taking advantage of Covington's tax breaks and grants and building what I think will become a very fine little arts community. I'd invest now if I were you. The property, there, and in Bellvue, is on the way up.

I stopped by the Kenton County Jail and saw Molly. She's finished her Ohio time and still has to serve down in Pee Wee Valley. I shared some birth stories and pictures with her. She's in reasonably good spirits, everything considered. Hannah and Julie over at Citybeat were excited to talk about the baby, too. That's where I went next.

I worked on the arts story there at Mike Breen's desk. He must have the best music collection in the city. If after I die, I come back as a stereo, I hope it's one owned by a music critic at an independent alt weekly.

Speaking of death, I borrowed a documentary on the Mexican Days of the Dead. I think that it would be a cool thing to do at St. E's - maybe to remember Chad and Mark. What do you think? From what I've learned, the festival is a celebration of the lives of loved ones who have passed and an attempt at finding joy in the inevitable.

I also borrowd Murder on the Orient Express and, two things: I never knew Vanessa Redgrave was that hot in her youth (I think she looks like Becky) and I had no idea the ending would suck so much. The murder - they all did it! Don't bother seeing it. If you think I ruined it for you, just be glad you don't have to endure it!

I rode partway home tonight. Mom was here today caring for Uly and helping Beck. Tracy brought us pizza for dinner. It was all pretty awesome. I'll miss all these wonderful dinners by all of you great people. Thanks so much!

Yesterday I got a cheap (used, not cheaply made) CB radio, handheld off Craigslist.
So sweet. A hitchhike-a-matic. The pros call it radio riding and I fantasized about being able to do this when I was running up the Gulf Coast last year. Can't wait to try it out. I still want to do the Chernobyl motorcycle tour, too.

"I need the lower torso of a dead cow..."

I saw the following ad on the local craigslist and thought, "this will be burning Sara Mahle's eyes soon"


"I need the lower torso of a dead cow for my short film. Back legs and udder a must. It needs to look real. If you have any skills with prop making and would like to shed some expertise on this project please let me know. This film will be submitted as an entry for Steven Spielberg's new reality show "On The Lot". Even if you cannot help out %100 I could use the advice."


- Steve

Sabotage and sleeping babies

Last week was an inspiring adventure in service education at my church, Vineyard Central.

Sabotage, so named for C.S. Lewis' quote, "Christianity is the story of how the rightful King has landed, you might say in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in His great campaign of sabotage," ended last week.

It was a three day service project at Vineyard, organized by Jeremiah Griswold. My part was to work with a fellow named Matt Smith, leading a group of six 15 to 17-year-olds in Cincinnati's urban sectors.

I think I'm a relatively secular kind of guy to be doing this sort of thing. Or perhaps I'm just guarded against the cults of belief. You know what I mean by that? Some folks get so enraptured and tied to their own ideas of what God is and what his story is that they become sure that all else is false. God's bigger than that, I think; bigger than the words written by men about him in the Bible (even if some or all were divinely inspired) and bigger than our imaginations. I hate orthodoxy, fundamentalism and fetishization.

Anyway, I put together a track, as I told our students on the third and last day of the trip, that tied together some key issues in service work. I am pro-people of color, pro feminist, pro queer, pro poor and pro Jesus -- and I think that all these things fit together quite nicely.

So, last week started with a trip to Caracole, which I thought (I had heard this from someone) was an AIDS hospice. In actuality it is housing, transitional and otherwise for folks living with AIDS. I, believing myself to be well informed, still thought of this as a death sentence, but the men I met who have been living, in apparent (the word, "apparent," is key) health for more than a decade with it proved me wrong. They spoke to our group about what it's like to live with it and for most of them (and me, too) it was the first meaningful contact with someone with the disease. While we were there we cleaned their blinds and windows and did yard work.

Wednesday was brunch at Our Daily Bread soup kitchen (they actually serve a lot more than soup and I really recommend you go for brunch one morning - 10am to noon, daily) followed by house cleaning at Elementz hip-hop youth center. We watched this video on police abuses of power in Cincinnati.

Thursday, the final day, was spent at the Cincinnati Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center learning about the death penalty and the Biblical justification for being against the war in Iraq and war in general. VC trustee Dave Nixon I heard, in an unrelated Sabotage exercise that week, discussed how Bush announced that he would repay 9-11 with a massive and greater response, and how this was a violation not only of Jesus' teachings, but also the Lex Talionis, which is the oft referenced and poorly understood Bible verse that goes, "an eye for an eye."

Anyway, the IJPC is run by Sister Alice Gerdeman, an amazing, vibrant example of activism in action. Sister Alice spoke with the group about the death penalty and about why she is against it as a Christian (Jesus was a victim, you'll recall) and how the drugs used in executing persons aren't even allowed to be used in euthanizing dogs because they may cause agonizing pain while paralyzing those murdered by the state.

IJPC staffer Kristin Barker spoke about Jesus' crafty opposition to the monoculture of his time. Turn the other cheek, she said, and demonstrated with Matt Smith's help, is not about being a Christian doormat. Let's say a person slaps you with an open hand on your right cheek. An open handed strike was one used against an inferior, she said. If you expose your left cheek to the person you force them to backhand you - a strike reserved for equals - or give up the fight.

She said the thing about when someone demands your tunic, give them your cloak, is about shaming them to see how ridiculous this is. At that time, she said, folks who couldn't pay a debt were literally dressed down by the creditor - the fee when you couldn't pay was your tunic. To give your cloak as well was to stand before them and everyone else stark naked. This shamed those who saw you, but not you and showed how stupid the whole penalty was, she said.

Barker also talked about the verse in which Jesus says, if a soldier tells you to carry his gear a mile, carry it two miles. At that time, soldiers' gear was extremely heavy and troops were not to go any farther than one mile at a time during a normal march. To go further was to be punished - whipped or reprimanded. Soldiers would often demand that a villager carry their gear for them - but no more than a mile, that was the rule, she said. To carry it further than this put the soldier in the position of begging the person to stop who he once ordered to go. And do the lesser becomes the greater and the servant the master.

We took the bus two out of the three days we worked and I made sure that we walked several miles through Over-the-Rhine. I think the kids learned a lot, and so did I.

My leg went to sleep while singing Queen songs and Sympathy for the Devil to Uly tonight. He's a cute little guy.

- Steve

The time moves so quickly and money even more so

I keep telling myself that, if I can hit the sweet spot of no wasted time, I'll be able to do all the things I need to in a given day - bills, baby, work, cleaning, service, prayer and reflection - and maybe I'll even be able to write about it at the end of the day.

The leader of that pack of wolves that drives me is "bills." I hate that this is, somehow, the slavedriving king of my existance. It really feels like that. Even when I have the money to be caught up, I often get behind because my bills have become lost in a pile and, "how much money do we have in the account?" "Did I record that visa purchase from the other day?"

I really hope to make my next post meaningful, about Sabotage last week.

- Steve

Meanwhile, in a parallel universe...

Uly's name, had he been a girl, would have been Abby Dolores.

I just found a CD case that I wrote this on, and the words' meanings. Abigail is "A father's joy" and Dolores means, "the lady of sorrows."

I wrote, then, "good symmetry"

Ulysses means wrathful or vengeful and Jonas is dove of peace. Again, good symmetry.

- Steve

First week of Uly's life, first day of Sabotage

And what an eventful week it's been!

Uly is, according to our observation and that of friends and a nurse, very advanced.

He can turn over from his belly to his back, lift his head and he's very alert - eyes open much of the time, tracking movements and such.

We are so in love with this baby! He's snuggly and amazing. Last night was his first concert, Psalters - they performed at St. E's - and also his first bath. He was so good at both. I've trucked him around using the baby bjorn.

Sandy, Beck's mom, choked on an oyster cracker on Sunday. I had to give her the Heimlich Maneuver. That was my first time and it worked rather well. I mean, she's still with us and all.

The first day of Sabotage, the youth service project around here, was today. My group worked at Caracole, a transitional home for people living with AIDS. More on this project tomorrow.

- Steve

Sleep, interrupted

The first full day of Uly's life has been mercifully uneventful. He's pretty chill and cries only during a changing or when he's hungry. Most of the time he's slept. The nurse says this may change.

It's 20 'till 5 in the morning and I just changed his diaper. I thought I'd write until I became tired again. I've got to research how to live with cloth diapers (wet pail, I think the process is called), so I may just do that, too. We're using Motherease. They have a one-size-fits all approach using adjustable snaps. We liked the idea so Beck and I ordered a sample. I believe it'll work.

Being awake is a bit painful, but he has a beautiful face and that kind of eases everything.

- Steve

Uly

He's here!!!

He's here!!! 5:08 am in the freakin' morning, and it's finally time to welcome Ulysses Jonas!!! He was very heavy, weighing in at 9 lbs 1 oz.
The mother is fine and the father is very relieved!

We have plenty of pictures and video of the birth for all to see.
Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers with Becky and Steve.
They love you all very much!!!

-Katie

Dr. is coming

Becky's still having some trouble getting Ully out of her right now. She's been pushing for two hours now, so the nurse has called a doctor to drive over here and help with the labor. She's on potosin now, and has tried many positions to no avail. I have seen the very top of his head, but he just seems to want to stay put. Stubborn kid!
We're all getting very tired and anxious!!

we're pushing!

1:02am. still aug 1 in cali!

Uly kicks and spins

"he's moving in response to my hand," she says.

Tif tells us the baby is face up. It would be better if he were face down. Tif is turning Beck on her side to try and turn the baby.

Pitosin is now a possibility.

- Steve

Uly's head

11:30pm

The nurse midwife put a couple of fingers in and felt the top of Uly's head. He has hair!

She was 9cm dialated, as I reported earlier.

Tiffany is examining her again. I have a ringside seat. It's a strange view. They have a green-white light she's using to examine her. Tif is using an in-out catheter to drain Beck's bladder. Tif pushes on her belly. "I'm getting all the pee out to give him more room."

Beck's mom arrives, some pinched cord

Sandy just arrived. It's 8:42pm.

Gwen, our nurse midwife, says the cord is being pinched here and there, but it's not a big deal unless it happens consistantly.

Still no pitosin needed. That's great.

Anyway, they're having some nice time together. Baby's heart rate is about 140 per minute. Becks is 60.

- Steve

damn that looks like it hurts!

Hello!
Well Becky is having lots of contractions all over the place, and I just feel so honored to be here! She's had some problems with her needle in her arm, and got two different doses of drugs for the pain. I'm so glad that these good people are about to bring a new life into the world. This is gonna be so cool! Please send us all your good vibes for this labor... and impeach Bush.
Love, Katie Freshley

From our Doula, Les Nixon

this has been a blast so far.becky is a real trooper and we are all so excited.we are getting some good fotos.hopefully it won't be too long now.seeyou later.

- Leslie

6 cm dialated

Tiffany, our nurse, says we don't have to worry unless we see her frazzled.

We just got into a place where we could hook up to the Net and we're in our room, number 6. Becky opted for an epidural after some harsh pain.

more soon

- Steve

2:06pm, contractions continue

Beck's on the phone with the midwife.

Contractions have been frequent, 3-8 minutes apart, averaging 6 minutes apart.

Some fluid, two discharges.

Leslie Nixon, our doula is here.

I'm betting he comes at 8pm. Sandy, Beck's mom concurs.

If you read this, please don't call, just wait for us to call you or the next entry.

2:12pm

Still on the phone. Yesterday she was 80 percent effaced and 1.5 c dialated.

We're on our way to the hospital to confirm that it was the water. I think we'll be staying!

- Steve

The contractions so far

"I don't know if it was urine or what, but it leaked on the floor...(then something about the losing the mucous plug)"

- Becky, on the phone to her mom

Here's the stats in the baby game:

Contractions, Duration, Frequency, Notes
7:20 am 15sec - bloody show, body purges

7:20-9:30a 30 sec? 5-20 min surges mild intensity

9:30a 45sec 30 min? slight tightening

10am 15sec 30min

10:17am 25sec 17min

10:25am 15 sec 8min irregulor, but ongoing

10:34 15 sec 9min

10:37? 15sec 3min

10:51am 15 sec


Have to go...this proceeded to about ever 5 min since 12:39p It's now 1:56p

Steve

Contractions continue, gast tank cleaning and creationist madness

So, I've loaded the bags into the car at this point and went out to get us food from Subway.

Becky's last meal as a pregnant woman is a vegimax patty. Mine was a bmt.

She's having trouble eating and getting dressed because of the contractions.

Dogs are back to the Brown House.

Leslie Nixon, our Doula is coming in half an hour and Katie Freshley, our friend and birth photographer has been alerted and is on call.

I also picked up some Gumout to mix with gravel and clean out the motorcycle's gas tank. Do you think I have time before the hospital to do this? I don't, but I'll proceed as if there is time and stop when I have to. Dogger is panting his head off. Thank God the heat breaks tomorrow.

I'll be bringing the book Cosmos with me in an attempt to convice our Doula that creationism is actually a pagan belief system. I can't stand creationism, but I love our doula!

-Steve

Getting Closer...

The contractions are getting closer!

So cool

Ok, so maybe it will be today.

Against my wife's better judgement, I am liveblogging about this.

We *think* the water broke and she's been having irregular contractions since 7:20am

For my part, I am drinking Corona and rode 10 miles with Thurman, from home to Mariemont and back.

Sweet!

Uly's due Tuesday!

...but I bet he's late!

We saw Lilo and Stitch tonight at Mom's. Beck and I recently purchased a plush Stitch doll that we will soon vivisect and transform into the Dread Cthulhu! (Pics, will of course, be posted.)

- Steve

How providence has conspired to get my Scrambler rolling

I really felt that way today.

To preface, I'll tell you that it was two days before I saw the ad posted that my mind started turning towards getting a motorcycle. I wanted to spend $400 or less and then, there she was - The 1973 Honda Scrambler. I was the first to get to the guy's home and buy it.

So, since then, my gas tank has made its way to Center City Collision, Kevin's shop and he's undenting the can and repainting it as original. (Sweet!) He's a good friend and a badass pastor, btw. Props to you, bro.

I put a damaged camera for sale on Craigslist yesterday. Here's the ad:

5.0MP, 3x optical zoom and 32MB of internal memory (you can also add a memory card for even more space, but the internal mem will allow you to take up to 20 photos at a time.

Takes sharp, hi def pictures and it comes with the easyshare loading dock, manual & software installing cd.

The one issue the camera has does not interfere with taking photos - the directional thumbpad (like the thing you use to move mario around on a Nintendo) is not working. It was dropped and a connection was probably loosened.

Because of this, you cannot delete pictures while in the field and you can only view the last photo taken. This doesn't stop it from taking beautiful pictures still & the easyshare software is so easy to use & makes storing, dowloading & sharing photos a breeze. The camera looks new except for a few light scratches.

Please email me any questions. I'm willing to take $50 cash or a trade. An old mountain bike? Electronics? Make me an offer I can't refuse.

So, a couple of people respond including this guy, Mike, who wants to trade an old Ross mountain bike. I've never heard of ross, but what the hell? It's a cheap bike for a broken camera, huh?

We're all set to do this and the camera mysteriously stops working. Sucks and I can't get it to power back on at all. So I call him and say, at least it wasn't you calling me tomorrow thinking you got screwed, and he agrees, and we start to talk what else I've got for trade, because he really wants to unload this bike. He takes care of his mom who is very ill and needs to take care of himself and can't risk an accident, he says.

Anyway we get to talking about trades and craigslist sales and I mention the Scrambler. "A CL350, right, he says?" and I'm like, yeah, that's right. Anyway, dig it: He's had several similar Hondas and is Mr. motorcycle guru and tells me all these great tips to get the old girl running. Way cool! Plus, he says, he has other stuff to sell or trade and he still wants the camera, even if it is broken. He's looking for stuff to tinker with things.

(He knows Linux and how to make wifi work with too, but that's another story.)

Anyway, I traded my 1gig ipod shuffle and the broken camera for a sweet Ross bike - circa 1985 but in better shape than my Raleigh. It's nimble and quick, too. He also threw in two OEM Honda saddlebags for the bike and his and her helmets with plexiglass visors. And a Honda motorcycle jacket and a Harley D. rainsuit!!

Awesome deal.

Anyway, he says I can de-rust the tank by putting in gravel and something else (I have to call him cause I can't recall what the mystery goo is.) and then rinse with gasoline. A gas and mystery goo mix can clean the carb all at once, he says. No rebuild needed. And, silicone in the handlebars will dull the high speed vibes typical when taking Scramblers to highway speeds.

Anyway, I'm very excited.

Later, I had a wonderful dinner date with my dear wife. I love her so.

- Steve

The cold shower after the ride

...feels great.

Issac Rains (9-years-old and a family friend) and I rode 5 miles at the Lunken Airport Bike Trail today.

Issac did fine and I borrowed my friend, Laura Oster's recumbent Bike E. A great ride over all, but murder up hills! I had to walk it up one of them.



I rode 23 miles this week all together. Right on!

Becky and I are working to pay off any old debt or at least figure out where we are with it. My hope is that we can be, with the exception of student loans and the house payment, debt free in one year.

- Steve

Meanwhile in the Free World...

I have to say that I'm impressed at Lopez Obrador's response to the recent Mexican elections.

You can read his July 16 speech at the second information assembly in Mexico City's Zocalo here: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/07/21/18290426.php

He is doing now what Al Gore should have done in 2000 (and, arguably, what John Kerry should have done in
'04) - he's contesting the election results and defending the sanctity of the ballot box. It's a humbling thing for the mighty United States to be shown the way by an impoverished state such as Mexico.

There's an excellent podcast discussion of the election at Here On Earth: http://wpr.org/hereonearth/archive_060724k.cfm

In this program, host Jean Feraca discusses the similarities and differences this has with the allegations of American election fraud.

+A common thread of disaster+

Kevin Sites blog entry on the Israeli assault on Tyre, Lebanon - http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs7920
- is a shocking, disturbing portrayal of war's cost. The dust covering the faces in these photos gives the
subjects a gustly pale.

It's worth reminding ourselves that this terrible mess - war crimes and misdemeanors and all - is nothing new.

Check out Goya's 19th Century documentary masterpiece, The Disasters of War - http://goya.unizar.es/infogoya/Work/Desastres.html - and Vietnam Inc. - http://www.musarium.com/stories/vietnaminc/index.html

- Steve

I'm angry at you because of the part of me that you represent

Jung teaches us that the images of loved ones or rocks or anything in out dreams are archtypes, projections of ourselves in our unconscious mind.

I believe (though I don't know that the good doctor went this far) that our everyday, waking experiences hold the same symbolism. I had, recently, a tense moment with a loved one and perhaps this person's behaviors irritated me so because of I saw this behavior in myself.

Not rocket science, really, but worth reminding myself about this.

Maybe everything everything carries this symbolism. Maybe portents and signs, the shreiks of devils and the whispers of angels are a deafening chorus, surrounding us. And we simply choose, often, not to hear it.

Danger baby, Motorbike Zen and the last week of pregnancy

We think it may be. The due date is August 1 and we're anxiously awaiting our first meeting with the boy.

I have a new project, borne out of discussions with overprotective friends, worried about all the things Beck and I might do with the baby (like take him on the bus or take him on the bicycle using a child safety seat) that they certainly would not and consider dangerous. Danger Baby. We'll be photoshopping and staging seemily dangerous photos of our son in all manner of peril.

Baby with knives, baby bungee jumping, baby climbing the Empire State Building. Look for our new Danger Baby Web site coming this fall.

The Motorsickle
I removed and drained the gas tank tank today. It was, surprisingly, not bolted down - it just sits there, wedged on top, partially beneath the seat. I disconnected the petcock valve (pictured)
That's not mine, but it's a similar petcock valve. This shifts the fuel off and switches between the main and reserve tanks (These are really the same thing, it's just that switching to reserve siphons gas from a lower level of the tank). Motorcycles (many of them) don't have gas gauges and what you do is, you just run out of gas from the main tank and then switch to the reserve, which gives you about 40 miles of road to find a gas station.

I'm trying to do this operation on the bike with a lot of love. I find machines respond well when you don't half ass it.

- Steve

On the mend - also, anyone have a tarp?

So, after Friday's foot surgery I was once finally able to ride a bike again last night and tgoday. I missed being on two wheels. Heck, I missed being on two feet!

Long and short: I dropped a wooden privacy fence panel on my foot a month ago (!!) and, unbeknownst to me, a piece or pieces of wood became stuck in my foot.

Two weeks ago, painful wound sorta on the mend, I picked at my foot and out came a top-of-Lincoln's-head-on-a-penny size chuck 'o' pine. I heal some more, but my scar is more like a drum than a healing scar - the membrane has a litte cave behind it. What's that wedging it open? More wood or fibrous scar tissue. A utility-knife-session later I still don't know, but there's an end-of-my-little-finger sized lump there, on top of my foot.

One foot doctor won't touch it. Too deep and if he messes up, I'm messed up. Second doctor sticks me like he's kitting with three shots of lydacane and cuts a trench on top of my foot, digging out all the fibrous tissue he can. Seven stitches later, he still doesn't know if there's a foreign body in there.

Weekend finds me in bed, on my back, foot in the air. Hurt like hell and I couldn't walk. I can now (yeah!) On Friday it's back to Doc number 2, who will check me out and maybe go back in. I hope not.

The antibiotic spiked my blood pressure, too and I had to knock it off.

Also, anyone have a tarp I can borrow? My motorcycle is in the rain.

- Steve

Some thoughts this morning...

I think, following up on a post I wrote some weeks back, about some folks having an inability to imagine any (positive at least) future, that realizing that a positive outcome, that things will go well in the future may be about realizing that it's not *you* who will have to live the future - at least not the present tense you.

Raising a child is conceivable now (pun intented) whereas it wasn't a year ago. Past me, the me of several years ago couldn't have handled owning a house or working as a freelancer. Present me can. It's not the me of today who has to figure out how to live in SF. The present me only has to prepare the way for the future me, who'll have the skills to do what has to be done.

It's a lot easier to swallow that way, isn't it?

+Biking+
I rode 19 miles so far this week. To and from downtown on Monday (7m round trip) and all the way from Norwood to my mom's house yesterday (12.5 miles). I travelled the 12.5 miles in about two hours or at an average of 6mph - not crazy fast, but steady and I was able to move up the hills without stopping. I usually have to walk up the steep hills like Gilbert and through Eden Park, at least part way, but this time I moved with relative ease.

- Steve

What Materazzi said to Zidane (allegedly)

According to Wiki News it was an anti Muslim slur - Zidane is Muslim.

Headbutting incident

He was sent off for violent conduct after headbutting Italy's goalscorer, Marco Materazzi, in the chest in the 110th minute. The game ended in a 1-1 draw and Italy won the championship after a penalty kick shootout.

Both Zidane and Materazzi refused to comment on the incident. Zidane's agent Alain Migliaccio said, "[Zidane] told me Materazzi said something very serious to him but he wouldn't tell me what."[13] Reportedly, the deaf forensic lip-reader Jessica Rees was employed to analyze the video sequences with the help of an Italian translator. According to these reports, Materazzi spoke in Italian - a language understood by Zidane due to his time spent with Juventus F.C. - and first told him: "Hold on, wait, that one's not for a nigger like you." As the players walked forward, Materazzi allegedly said: "We all know you are the son of a terrorist whore." Then, just before the headbutt, he was seen saying: "So just fuck off." [14] [15] According to Brazilian TV Rede Globo, a lip-reader claimed that Materazzi twice called Zidane's sister a prostitute.[16] Earlier claims about Materazzi having called his opponent a "dirty terrorist" have been denied by Materazzi, who reportedly said: "It is absolutely not true, I did not call him a terrorist. I'm ignorant. I don't even know what the word means." [17][13]

On July 10, 2006, Zidane was awarded the Golden Ball for the best player in the 2006 World Cup. The winner was selected in a poll of journalists covering the tournament which began half time of the championship game, prior to the headbutting incident. Zidane won the contest with 2012 points, ahead of second place finisher Fabio Cannavaro, who polled 1977 points. Although the polling continued until midnight, most votes were cast prior to the headbutting incident.[18][19]

A three-integer system?

I've been reading a book on mathematics and have been trying to get a new grasp on numbers. I know math and some algebra and physics, of course, but all that really means is that I know how to drive this car called, "math."

I don't know how to take it apart and put it back together again. I'm an operator, not an architect.

In pursuit of this goal I'm trying to learn a three or six integer system, rather than our ten integer system (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, 10,11 and so on)

A three integer system would count like this:

1, 2, 10, 11, 12, 20, 21, 22, 100, 101, 102, 110...and so on.

The math would give different results, but, fundamentally, I believe, reduce to the same thing in binary code.

So that's what I'm on to now. Different counting. Has anyone reading this tried that?

- Steve

Motorcycle Diary, Installment two

This is a much better pic of the bike (from a Honda Advertisement)

I also found the uber-alliance cool site about an electric conversion Scrambler.

Motorcycle Diary, installment one

Ok, so we've had the Scrambler now for about two weeks and she finally turned over today.

The bike is a 1973 Honda CL350 Scrambler with 25,000 miles.

It's in good shape for a 33 year old bike, though it didn't run when we bought it. The owner cited bad gas in the engine, turned to varnish and gumming up the works. I began to clean it yesterday and today, with some help from Rich, I got the throttle unstuck.

She turned over and roared loudly. It'll be a whle before she purrs, but it's really thrilling to hear the engine for the first time.

The electrical system and starter seem to be in good shape. I'll follow with pix and descriptions of the probable carb rebuild we'll be doing.

- Steve

"Did you call this number?" Some annoying things about caller ID

This morning at 7:45 (!!?) some cat calls us up asking if we called his phone.

Whacked Caller ID Dude (WCID): "Uh...oh, I'm sorry."

Me: "That's ok, hello." (I think I was pretty congenial for quarter till 8)

WCID: "Yes, did you call this phone?"

Me: "I haven't called anyone this morning."

WCID: "No, this was last - yesterday."

Me: "I call a lot of people. Who is this?"

WCID: "My name is Joe Cossick (sp?)"

Me: "Uh huh, yeah, I don't know you."

WCID: "This number was on my caller ID. Did you call my phone."

Me: "This is silly. Goodbye" CLICK

Dude needs better things to do with his time.

- Steve

AMC 2006: Truth to power, then what?

The Allied Media Conference had its second keynote on Friday evening. (We had the keynote address that morning, so having two keynote is a little weird, but, okay...) The theme was “From Truth to Power: because being right is not enough.” The panelists, author Jeff Chang, Radio Rootz founder Deepa Fernandes and cinematographer Jackie Salloum focused on indie media's role is organizing for social justice.

Solloum spoke about her film, Sling Shot: Hip-Hop, a documentary about her trip to Gaza to meet the first Hip-Hop MCs in the region. Twenty minutes away, in Palestine, the Palestinean MCs were unaware their counterparts. Her film chronicles the lives of the Palestinean performers as they go to their first show – they look extremely American in numbered sports jerseys and shorts – and the context in which they live, in a country divided by a separation wall, stopped by Israeli soldiers demanding ID.

“Who controls our news, how powerful that is in the very fight for our lives,” Fernandes says. “We need to build a social movement with that at the center...How do we go beyond just speaking to ourselves? How do we get out there?”

She remarks that there is a revolutionary, ground-level media movement spreading in Venezuala. She says there is media-centered organizing going on in Venezuala's poorest neighborhoods.

She continues, speaking about the coup that temporarily deposed Hugo Chavez, saying that during the coup in the 1990s, the state television showed cooking shows and other light fare. This reminded me of how Cincinnati's local mainstream media betrayed the city by running regular programming during the riots. It disgusted me to see sit-coms running as conflict raced through the streets.

She says that the poor worked to get the street level news out by using cell phones, pirate radio and text messaging.

“People realized that controlling the media was at the center of winning a greater battle,” Fernandes says.

Chang says that many people he meets across the country are angered at the way Hip-Hop is portrayed by mainstream media.

“People feel very disempowered...isolated,” he says.

As a kid growing up in Hawaii he heard Rapper's Delight and describes the experience as empowering and as a revela tion. It connected him to the lives of inner city black kids he'd never seen. That's part of Hip-Hop's transactional cultural exchange.

Chang says, just as Hip-Hop's roots have grown and empowered listeners, its commercial branches have become twisted and gnarled.

“We have people like 50 Cent selling his get rich or die philosophy...he's the McDonalds of Hip-Hop...people (have been) turned into consumers...if you're down with 50 you wear a certain type of clothes.”

Chang says media like that has caused the people of the United States have become culturally isolated and to have lost their imagination.

“What does it look like if we win,” he asks. He says that, through Hip-Hop, we won – a marginalized art form became mainstream, but, almost overnight, it was also lost, and mainstreamed, co-opted.

Chang says that media activists need to consider what it will look like if we win and how we can keep a win from being co-opted.

AMC 2006: Reaching Kids

Cincinnati's Gavin Leonard was part of the panel discussion, Reaching Kids: Youth-Driven Programming. Leonard is the director of Elementz, a hip-hop youth arts center in the West End.

Leonard operated the Copwatch program from 2001-2003, which recruited members of the public to monitor and record malfeasance by local police. Copwatch transformed into Elementz, which opened in 2005, Leonard says, as a way to build trust and relationships with area youth.

“Our goal is to work with young people who either live in or come to Downtown,” Leonard says.

Hip-hop dance class, DJ classes and graffiti art are some of the classes that are available at Elementz.

Leonard says Elementz budget is tripling and is proud that the organization has crossed over from talking about what young people might need, to actually meeting them as peers.

A lot of people want to address the issues of kids, he says, but, “most of these people aren't really connected to what young people are doing."

“The thing you have to assume is that young people probably don't trust you and don't trust your programs,” Leonard says. “Respect is the concept we work from. Respect yourself, respect others and respect the space.”

Leonard says that surveying the youth in the Downtown basin was important to developing the program. His team would walk the community, speak to kids at local schools and even ride the bus and solicit opinions on what the program might look like. The idea was to be responsive to the needs of local youth, he says.

Continuing that line of feedback communication is critically important to the program's success. Elementz also has young people on its advisory board, he says.

“You've really got to work from where people are at, not where you're at,” Leonard says.

That could mean going, geographically to where young people are, he says, giving, obversely, the example of groups trying to address the problem of high school drop outs at high schools, instead of on the streets, where you're more likely to find drop-outs. Working from the perspective of the people that you're serving is another example, he says, using their music, culture and lingo, not your own.

Leonard, who is white, works with kids who are almost entirely African-American. He says it's important to address a certain level of racism, classism and sexism. Also, part of Elementz organizational plan is his exit strategy as executive director.

One man in the audience mentioned that the race issue – white or privledged black program coordinators working with young people of color - is often the elephant in the room that no one talks about. He said that black kids he's worked with have often resented taking direction from whites and have felt a cultural disconnect.

AMC 2006: DIY Publishing

Coverage from sessions at the 2006 Allied Media Conference

Representatives from the newspapers Critical Moment, out of Detroit and the NYC Indypendent presented a session on the basics of publishing a newspaper.

Arun Gupta of the Indypendent describes five areas of focus when starting a publication: target audience, content and design, financing, distribution, and structure.

I've been developing a Wiki book on DIY publishing since last year. You can read and contribute to the book here.
“Is it for the general public or is it for activists,” Gupta asks. It could have a niche focus, such as queer or environmental issues. He says, insofar as content, the Indy is reader driven, not writer driven – this means that, “...you're always asking...what is the audience looking for?”

“Design cannot be emphasized enough,” Gupta says. He says that four-color process helps the paper be visually appealing and that clear images and words help the reader – or potential reader – know what's inside, quickly.

Gupta says he prefers photos for the cover rather than graphics. A clean, clear image helps, he says.

Gupta mentions that the Indypendent has recently launched a new publication, IndyKids. He says you have to decide if you're going to have a newsy publication or cultural, with a first person point of view (POV) or a more traditional style.

Gupta says that you should publish articles that have a shelf life that is 1.5 times as long as your distribution cycle. (eg: A monthly paper should run articles that are good for six weeks.)

Donations were discussed as a major revenue stream for small, upstart papers. Gupta suggests that people wanting to use this sort of revenue stream should study direct mail solicitations. He says 1-2 percent is considered an excellent return on a direct mail solicitation, though, once when the Indypendent had Naomi Klein write an appeal letter for them, they had a 12 percent return – more than $10,000 from 3,000 solicitations sent.

Posters – a US map of our domestic weapons of mass destruction – and t-shirts have also been major revenue streams. 5,000 posters sold delivered $30,000 in revenue, Gupta says.

Free versus paid subscriptions: Both have their advantages, he says. Free distribution means the Indypendent reaches a wide audience. “We didn't want to be gettoized,” Gupta says.

On structure of the organization, Gupta says you must have clearly defined roles.

Max Sussman says that his publication is two-and-a-half years old. They publish every two months and Critical Moment is free.

Sussman says his project has an open submissions policy. He describes the process of collecting content as a kind of mixed bag – some is assigned by the collectives – they have two, one in Detroit and another in Ann Arbor – and other content comes in unsolicited.

“One of the things we've started to do more recently is to put on more events,” Sussman says. “We think that really increases our visibility.”

Sussman says they've hosted speaking engagements with featured writers. Music show fundraisers are also helpful, he says. “We do dance parties,” Gupta adds.
Sussman says they raise money through ads, primarily, but are developing plans for donor streams. The paper carries an ongoing, 20 percent debt, he says, that's shouldered by cash infusions from members of the collective.

“Our ads go through our editorial policy,” Sussman says. If an ad is outside of their values or if ads are blatently offensive, without a purpose, they ask the advertiser to redesign the ad. He gives as an example an ad that read something like, “Fuck the War – Shop at my store,” saying that the Critical Moment collective objected on the basis that 1) shopping at this proprietor's store clearly would not end the war and 2) that the large word “FUCK” was used without a real purpose – just for shock value.

Gupta says the Indypendent does not use a union print shop because of the costs involved. He says that his team has threatened to drop their printer to negotiate a better deal.

Ad sales is a major hurdle for Critical Moment. Sussman says the paper has no paid ad reps at this time and garnering advertising is a difficult task. Gupta says that they try and focus their ad sales on indie culture producers in New York such as poetry and music events. One member of the audience suggested publishers focus on wealthy non-profits towards the end of their fiscal season.

Both newspapers operate as collectives – this means there's a lot of work that is shared and members wear many hats.

Sussman says they judge their success as a publication by how many copies are left at newsstands at the end of a cycle. Gupta also discusses a story that they ran on an Iraq War vet who became homeless. The Indypendent broke the story and it was later picked up by major dailies and CBS.

“They're never going to credit you,” NYC says. “But they use the same sources...”

My story on the Allied Media Con is now live

Here it is.

Blogging suspended til I get home

Damn. Damn. Damn.

I dropped my shiny new three pound vaio laptop right on the wifi. and the wifi is out. Sucks. Though I suppose it's a blessing that I lost no data (my story is on it and I can continue writing. But no more live blogging for a bit.

Steve

AMC 2006: Marketing, minors and the military

Coverage from sessions at the 2006 Allied Media Conference

I caught just the tail end of this fascinating session.

The Pittsburgh Organizing Group (POG) presented information on how the US Military hooks new recruits.

I found out about JAMRS, (Joint Advertising Marketing and Research Studies) the Department of Defense marketing database used to collect information on potential recruits.The Army has also released a free, high quality video game – it cost the US $16 million to produce – that glorifies combat and ignores the costs of war.

“There's no reality here,” POG member Bridget Colvin says.

She also presented information on myfuture.com which offers a free career aptitude test to students and then, after the test there is an inducement for students to take the ASVAB, Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery. This tests only a student's current proficiencies, not what they're interested in exploring or what they might be good at with training.

Colvin also presented several other examples of pseudo-news stories that ended with requests for personal information, for information on friends and promoted the fitness, opportunities for travel and adventure and college money that can be gained through the military.

There were also reports among the audience of military marketing at movie theaters, offering free itunes songs and DVDs for kids willing to watch military promotional films.

I reported on the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center's Counter-Recruitment drives in Cincinnati earlier this year. Similar

“There is no job worse than the military,” Jeremy Shenk member says. “The pay sucks, you're on call 24-hours a day, they can shoot you – technically – if you try and quit.”

“We're anti-militarism,” Colvin says. “How voluntary is an army where you don't have all the information before you join.”

One of the POG members mentioned, after the session, the the Justice Department has bee spying on them as POG is considered a threat to national security.

AMC 2006: Unplug Clear Channel

Ongoing coverage of the 2006 Allied Media Conference

Clear Channel was the subject of the lunchtime keynote. The conference was starting to fill in at this point – I'd guess that there are about 350 people here now. The attendance typically crests at 800. I know this because this is the fourth time I've been to this Con. This is also the 8th year for the event, which always been here in Bowling Green. It's moving to Detroit next year, which makes me a little sad – I'm saying goodbye to this sleepy little town, but also very excited at getting to know the Motor City, Patti Smith's Dead City.

Taishi Duchicela of Oakland's Youth Media Council presented her arguments that Clear Channel has wrecked local Hip Hop radio stations in the Bay Area, by holding pro-war rallies (as they have in Cincinnati and elsewhere), dropping almost all local musician, and promoting ultra-right politics.

“All they talk about is war and immigration and they are very, very vulgar,” she says, adding that the make money off of Hip-Hop to pay for their racist, sexist agenda.

“That, to us is not right,” Duchicela says.

She plays audio clips from Clear Channel broadcasts, including one broadcaster suggesting that aborting black babies would help ease crime in the U.S.

The YMC's response has been to develop an organizing campaign, Unplug Clear Channel. They have protested in front Bay Area radio stations and have challenged broadcast licenses.

“We own the airwaves...we also have a say in what kind of programming goes out over those airwaves,” she says.

Clear Channel, she says, has been very reluctant to speak with the YMC. She says her organization is developing a list of standards that they believe radio stations and steering document describing what they believe a model station should look like.

Part of the struggle is getting people to care about media policy and to communicate, especially to young people, why it's important.


Pop Culture, Hip-Hop and Media Literacy
Bowling Green State University Professor Awad Ibrahim played a Jennifer Lopez video and asked the audience in this session to dissect the messages the music and images conveyed. He said, as a teacher, his job was to try and speak with his students about pop culture and their music – even if he finds it repugnant.

The song and the video presented was “Love Don't Cost a Thing,” a piece filled with contributions – the vocal about her “love” was punctuated with close ups of her body. The vocals also regarded female empowerment which, apparently, JLO gets by taking off her clothes. It's a song that says that money doesn't matter while showing Lopez driving a sports car, living in a mansion, etc.

“The visual aspect hits the boys more than the girls,” Ibrahim says. “It's really interesting when you enter the space of gender. The boys do not see anything except her butt.”

He asks the audience to listen to the music separately from listening to the video to show the divide between one message and the other.

This session continues the day's theme of scholarly deconstruction. Ibrahim stresses that it's important not to judge the students' taste.

Allied Media Conference: Preach to the choir, not the kids

It's the first full day of sessions at the Allied Media Conference and there are 3-5 different sessions going on at any given time. There's a lot to choose from.

ACME's (Action Coalition for Media Education)Bob McCannon discussed media literacy and education in his session, “Process is more important than content.” McCannon says that the fastest way to alienate students, or the public for that matter, is to tell them how much their media sucks – that it's sexually exploitative, materialistic, crass, fluff-rich and content-poor. He said that makes his students feel guilty at best, angry at worst. Either way, it's a turn-off.

McCannon, who teaches college courses on media,says introducing critical thinking exercises is key to getting people to become educated about what they're being sold. And by, “sold,” I mean the concrete, as in the material goods that are being marketed in their media and metaphorically, as in, “the bill of goods they're trying to sell,” as in the brand identities that they're selling.

In this session, McCannon shows a film clip from a Sean Connery movie in which he plays a Vietnam vet who is a drunk, has post-traumatic stress syndrome and is redeemed by a scholarly, inner-city black kid. He says these elements – all visible in a 14 second clip – are counter to most of the images that are conveyed by the pop-media-industrial complex. 14 seconds, he says, is far longer than the attention span that's ingrained by MTV's .5 second scenes.

Several marketing examples were presented for discussion:
Seventeen Magazine – One cover advertised ways to boost sex appeal and asked, “Does your personality SUCK?” - covering the bases of both depression and obsession with body image. The magaine's covers are decided by formula, he says, as is the content – stories are decided on the basis of who is advertising. More clothing ads equals more stories on clothing.
President Bush on stage with a Bush impersonator – McCannon says this was an engineered by the administration to make Bush look softer and more like a regular guy.

“We never say the media are mad and we never say the media are good...the media are always good and bad,” McCannon says.

Allied Media Conference Trip: Evening, day one

Well, we made it to the conference after a harrowing journey; the winds drove the rain in sheets, making it almost impossible to see at times. We also passed three tractor trailers in a row that were blown over by the force. It was incredible and kind of scary.

Anyway, we made it and I got a shower at the Unitarian Church and am leeching wifi at Panera in downtown Bowling Green.

- Steve

Allied Media Conference Trip: Noon, day one

Still in Columbus and I'll be departing for Bowling Green at around 3p.m.

Aaron MacCaughey, of the Columbus based band Sheldon Marsh drove by, saw me and picked me up. No, he whttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=8072549asn't looking for the city's ugliest streetwalker, we knew each other already. Aaron is part of the Landing Place community in Columbus.

Landing Place or "LP" is a small, Christian (I'm starting to prefer Xtian as shorthand) community where about 40 people get together weekly for small house churching. A smaller set of LP folks live communally. My wife, Becky, and I are members of the Vineyard Central community in Cincinnati, which is a similar kind of church.

Aaron and I met up with Jason Gilliland, the band's drummer. They were discussing how much they hate the band lingo that's so prevalent today - "BGV" for Backgrounnd Vocalist or "VOX." Aaron is the band's VOX, "and BGVs, too," Jason says.

Allied Media Conference Trip: Morning, day one

It's a steamy Columbus morniing and I'm here, on a friend's porch, blogging during my 5-hour layover. I didn't fly, but hitched a ride with Media Bridges Educational Coordinator Sara Mahle.

While here, I've been learning to use Skype's free telephone service and have been dialing up friends using my laptop. Pretty cool - I can sniff out open wifi and phone home, all without a lot of hassle. The service is surprisingly good - better than my last cellphone, which I threw into the river in 2001. All calls are free through December, 2006 and it's a mighty good hook, I must say.

The Allied Media Conference kicks off tonight and I'll be blogging from the field.

Media: First, kill all the adverbs

This 2001 snippit from Fresh Air's linguist Geoff Nunberg hammers home the manipulative toungue twists in our media.

As he says in his report, "Don't romance me, just pour the drink."

According to craigslist, this is a common menace

This has had me nearly crying with laughter.

Gay rights: Modern day slavery

This is the civil rights issue of our day.

I urge you to read Citybeat Editor John Fox's condemnation of gay discrimination, my piece, called Josh's Two Moms and this compelling story of a gay man learning to accept himself as he is.

Also, I believe that, if you take an honest inventory of yourself and the gays and lesbians you know, you'll recognize that the bile conservatives hold for them does not bear the weight of experience. They were born this way, just as you were born heterosexual. You didn't make a choice to be fascinated with the opposite sex or to fall for your spouse, you just were, are and did.

That gays are destroying straight marriage is a cheshire cat, a straw man, born to fall. It's not the truth.

Moreover, they should be welcomed into the body of Christ. We, as a church, should invite gays and lesbians, letting them know that they're welcome for communion, too, and that Vineyard will be a place of non-discrimination. Different ideas? That's great, argue them - in a polite way - but recognize that Jesus loves gays just as much as he does you.

And, if after all this, you still believe what they're doing is wrong, that's okay - if it is a sin, it's no different from any other sin, and you tolerate and love all those other sinners, right? That's all they want - to be let alone to live without a hassle. (I'll step off my soap box now)

This is gay pride month. The Pride parade, which is family friendly, is on Sunday, June 11th. The Rally and Parade begin in Clifton's Burnet Woods at 11am. The Rally preceeds the Parade which steps off promptly at 1pm and finishes at Hoffner Park - that's on Hamilton Avenue in Northside, just south of Chase.

Take your spouse and your kids. It's a great, free festival and you dont have to be gay to attend.

May the night call down peace

That's a line from our closing prayer at housechurch. It's taken on new significance these days for me and Becky. The days and the work are long, though the rewards and opportunities are plentiful. I long for the night as I haven't before and welcome the silence and the dark.

As a kid, it was different; At that time I'd sleep with the radio on to drown out the thoughts I didn't want to think. I did that for a long time - til I was maybe twenty, I think.

As I sorted out my issues and healed, there was less and less to drown out. I'm glad for that.

An aquaintance of mine, Joan, died this week, I just found out from Jason. She may have been murdered. It's under investigation, Jason tells me. She wasn't very old, maybe 30.

Jason is coming in for the funeral. Good to see him, but so sad is the circumstance.