portabellos

we ate some of the portabellos with dinner....flavored with some garlic, soy sauce, and some other stuff. they were delicious!

interest (non)

a few other items of interest (or, more likely, non):

jen and i are growing mushrooms. portabello mushrooms. my parents gave jen a grow-some-mushrooms kit for her birthday. it consists of a small cardboard box with a plastic bag liner, compost, and mushroom mycelium. you mix it up and water it and, before long, up pop mushrooms. and it works! they started showing up a few days ago. it seemed to take awhile for them to appear but, now, they are really growing fast. it looks like we’ll be eating some fresh mushrooms very soon.

i have been working at the nursery again, the last two weeks. it has been fun to be working with the two other people i’ve worked with in the past. we have some really fun times. there have been many, many snowballs thrown.

i decided to post a short article about project occupation on indymedia and colorado indymedia, although i can’t figure out how to get it out of the ‘hidden article’ section. i don’t really understand how the system of posting articles works at this site. (http://indymedia.us/en/index_open.shtml) (http://colorado.indymedia.org/index.php)

jen and i are in a spanish class that is held weekly at a local junior high. i think this will be the sixth week of classes (one a week, 2 hours 15 minutes a class). it is beginning level, and basically a review for jen, but i am learning quite a bit. it’s a lot of fun and great practice for both of us.

i’ve been meeting with two others for a ‘talking group.’ we pick out articles, usually with an anarchist/feminist emphasis, read them, and then get together to talk about what we’ve read, how this relates to our lives, and ideas for action. it has been a very positive experience and something that i’m really excited about.

i guess that’s that for now. the x-men just escaped from the clutches of dr. doom, usagi is wandering feudal japan in all its black and white beauty, and i am enjoying a Saturday.

funding the war

the wind is blowing like crazy today. i’ve been sitting around reading old comic books. and i made some biscuits for breakfast. it’s been a great morning.

yesterday, i took part in something that some people are calling project occupation. it’s a series of actions that people across the states are planning and doing—going to the offices of senators and representatives, requesting that they publicly commit to stopping the funding of the war and occupation of iraq. congress has already appropriated $70 billion this fiscal year for the war in iraq and the president has asked for another $93 billion in a supplemental bill. it is clear this administration does not want to end the war and occupation. it seems that one of the few ways to end the war, which the u.s. initiated with it’s invasion of iraq, is to stop its funding. if we can succeed in doing that, hopefully this administration will realize the importance of getting u.s. soldiers out of a situation that was a grave mistake and crime in the first place. stopping the funding will also free up resources, energy, and money that can be used to help rebuild a country that has been decimated by our invasion and subsequent occupation, as well as aid people whose lives have been so terribly affected by our government’s war.

i feel a little strange about the idea of going through channels established by those in power to try and achieve change. sometimes i feel it is like asking ‘please, senator, stop this war’ when i want to say ‘we are stopping this war, whether you in power want to or not.’ i don’t like the supplication aspect. but then again, we are more than simply asking; we are saying ‘we are demanding that this stops. and we will not leave until this is done.’ and i really do see the project as a valid tactic so, if it is happening, why not help it to happen by participating.

so, a group of folks went to the office, made a statement to the press, and went inside. we presented a letter to the senator, requesting his public commitment to stopping the war’s funding and to blocking possible attacks on iran in the future. included in the letter is a statement concerning our readiness to create a continuous presence in the office until we receive confirmation of his commitment to stop the funding of the war. we stayed about an hour. the idea is to give the senator some time to respond and then, if we hear nothing or if there is no commitment, to return to the office with the intention of maintaining a presence there.

fear is the rust of action

i haven't posted here in awhile. here is something from two sundays ago.

I was down at the river, under some trees with my boots on the snow. I keep thinking about Anna Mae Aquash. Images hang around inside my head. I spent hours yesterday, reading one thing after another about her and all kinds of related things. It hasn’t left my mind. Anger and sorrow but also happiness and hope. Sometimes it’s a cold, barren place that is floating around in my head, these thoughts and images that won’t leave. But this is where I have arrived this afternoon, as I stood in the snow and looked at the darkening sky—more than any of that, more than a lonely road and fear and sorrow there is hope, there is love, there is courage. She was so brave and she never gave in.

I was reading something a few days ago….‘dull repetition is the rust of sacred verses; lack of repair is the rust of houses; want of healthy exercise is the rust of beauty; unwatchfulness is the rust of the watcher.’

As I thought about all these things I had been reading about and feeling, something else crept into my mind. Fear is the rust of action. This is what I am thinking about. She knew this. I never knew her. But this, her way of living, her refusal to let fear stop her, will never leave my mind or my heart.