Life is a State of Mind

I woke up to Newschannel 8 this morning with a start when I heard the words “Bull Run Mountain” in the same story with some sort of crime. I was too foggy headed at first, but that work me up because I live on Bull Run Mountain, so this story is very local.

Once I was thoroughly awake, I found the story here:
http://news8.net/news/stories/1007/466704.html (warning, News8 has lots of cookies and occasionally pop-under java scripts - grrrr)

Brief summary: A local African-American family found a noose hanging from a tree in their own front yard Wednesday afternoon. The noose was hung from a branch approximately 40 feet up the tree, so it took some substantial effort to put it there.

This is horrifying.

Continue Reading »

Waldo has been encouraging us to eat locally for some time, for both health and reduced carbon footprint, and liberalrage has shared an incredibly useful link for making that easier, no matter where you live.

http://www.localharvest.org

We’ve found that many local foods taste better, because rather than being selected for ease of transportation, they can be selected for flavor; and rather than being picked way too soon and allowed to ripen in the truck or on the shelf, they can be picked when ripe.

An unexpected benefit, many local growers have excellent weather sense, as growers do the world over… but enthusiastic local growers also blog about conditions as a way of communicating with their buyers and/or share owners. Those weather blogs are the keenest sense of what is happening locally that I’ve been able to fine. Support your local growers. You’ll meet new people, and you may even be invited to a local pumpkin fest or harvest party.

Since so many great people were canned in AOL’s irrational corporate action on Tuesday, we’ve been in a bit of shock at work, and remaining management is scrambling to figure out how to do the job with far less man-power (unlike previous layoffs, this one was random and hit many of the prime workers). I took two days off to be with Erci (she was layed off) and collect my wits. Frankly, I am not sure I want to work there anymore, as it is no longer the company I started working for in 1995.

We made lemonaide out of lemons and headed for Schuyler, VA to visit Bob and Liz, tour their new house, and the one under construction. Very nice digs they will have when it is finished. They took us into lovely downtown Charlottesville where we walked around, and had an excellent dinner at Zocalo. They have a “lemonaide” made with Maker’s Mark, blackberries, chilli, and lemonaide that is a fiesta on the tongue. Yum!

The leaves are beginning to turn and the drive up and back along U.S. Highway 29 was beautiful. I got my tires replaced on the Prius (how can tires go bad in only 23,000 miles?!?) and I had some dance lessons while Erci continued some out-processing/training/career counseling she gets as part of the layoff package

Erci and I are headed to Evo Bistro in McLean to celebrate our anniversary and her new freedom from a job. In fact - today is the 14th anniversary of our wedding, the 12th anniversary of her hiring on at AOL, and now the day she was laid off from AOL.

Update: On our way into Evo, we ran into Jacques - who we know from dancing. He is one of the owners of Evo and the wine selector. It was exactly what Erci needed, and we have excellent Tapas and very good wines by the ounce (which means you can try several).

Please Vote NO today

I am a Prince William County resident, tax-payer, and voter. I am extremely concerned about today’s vote at the BOCS meeting.

I am concerned about my taxes.
I am concerned about unfunded obligations.
I am concerned about racial profiling.
I am concerned that we are cutting off our county’s opportunities for reasonable sustainable growth.

Frankly, I see this whole “illegal immigration” issue as giant publicity stunt by certain members of the board for their political campaigns. I am watching how you vote and will vote and contribute accordingly.

Please have compassion for fellow human beings, who due to unfortunate accident of location of birth have not been given the same chances to survive as you and me. Yes they have broken the laws to come to our great country to struggle to survive, and frankly, if we were in their shoes we would too. Some laws need to be revised.
Think about it - slavery was once legal, as was wife-beating. Those laws were revised. Please be rational today, and consider the impact your vote will have on human lives and on taxpayers in the county.

Sincerely,
Scott Nolan
I gave my address in the letter, which went to every supervisor, and every candidate for supervisor.

Well - this evening sucks. I am hearing from people who are getting the “mandatory meeting at 9:30 tomorrow” emails and our assumption is that they are getting cut tomorrow. The scary thing is that many people in that list are absolutely critical and very much needed to get the job done. A second group of people have mandatory meetings at 11:00 we don’t know if that is more cuts, or post-cut reorg meetings…

Erci is in the second group. One valued and essential co-worker from my own team is in the first group and several other that my team rely on every week are also in the first group.

Worst layoff ever, and I’ve been through many of them since starting at AOL in 1995.

Hat tip to Howling Latina for pointing out this article in the Washington Post:

Post Editorial about this election

This election is perhaps the most important election to Northern Virginians in 15 years. Far more important than congressional and even presidential elections because this year, the control of the state legislature is at stake, and if Democrats win a simple majority in the Senate this year, then three Northern Virginia Senators will become the new leadership (based on seniority). They can effectively take control of the state legislature back from Richmond and spend a little of our tax money here, where we need it to fix traffic problems.

The Republican controlled legislature has proven that they can do nothing when given power. Rather than utilize their control of both houses to get things done, they’ve decided to waste time angering the electorate with fear and hatred for illegal immigrants - knowing full well there is very little a state can do with federal laws on the issue taking precedence.

GOTV: This year, more than any other year in recent memory, your vote will make a huge difference in your daily life. A vote for any of several Democratic challengers this November 6th will cause change in Richmond, giving the baton of control to Northern Virginian legislators - who regardless of party affiliation, know full well how much time we waste in our commutes each day.

Today is the last day to register, drop everything and go register today. Vote on November 6th, 2007.

Saturday Erci drove us up to Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia to stay at the posh Rittenhouse Hotel for a couple of nights. We’ll be visiting with Tasha (she took us to a restaurant Jim recommended).

This hotel is posh. We were welcomed with champaign and strawberries. Our suite is like a small apartment. They brought fresh fruit when they turned down the bedding while we walked around the square. The bedding is very nice, and there is a spa we probably will not have time to enjoy, but the idea is pleasant enough. The alarm clock/radio is also a dock for iPods, and you can play your iPod through the thing if you prefer. The TV has a DVD player.

When we walked in the square, we passed a bunch of people practicing with plastic light sabres. The little bit of Western martial arts training I have has ruined the fun of seeing this sort of thing because now I can’t help but see flaws in the fighting styles I witness.

The Mexican restaurant, Cantina Los Caballitos, is very, very yummy (Thanks Jim!). We ordered too much because it all sounded so good, and Tasha got stuck with some take-home left-overs. Fabulous conversation outside on a perfect night with just a slight breeze.

Sunday morning Tasha picked us up and took us to a Zen tea ceremony, liturgy chanting (Heart Sutra) and Dharma discussion in New Jersey at Pine Wind Zen Center. It was very different from our normal Soka Gakkai meetings, but interesting. The discussion was excellent, and focused on extending the compassion parents have for children to other human beings. We had much to talk about on the way back to Philadelphia.

Erci had to study for her MBA class a little, and Tasha had to do some child-care duties, so I was left to walk over to Philadelphia’s beautiful Rodin Museum on my own, which turned out to be splendid as I had plenty of time to contemplate the sculptures that inspired me, and was also free to rush by the ones I was not interested in. There were several that inspired me, including: “The Man with the Broken Nose,” “The Hand of God,” “Shame (Absolution),” and “Kneeling Fauness.” The thing that continues to strike me about Rodin’s work is the hands. So alive, so expressive, so much energy and tension. Amazing. Awesome. Wow…

Wow, just wow. If you are at all interested in dance, you need to get to a local showing of the live traveling show “So You Think You Can Dance” with the top dancers from the TV show of the same name. We saw a lot of the same routines we saw during the competition on TV, but the dancers have had time to refine the routines and polish their performances. Also they added a few new routines. The show was fantastic.

Thank you Erci, for scoring tickets and making us go to Philadelphia to see the show!

Monday was a vacation day for me, and we came back from Philadelphia, and then I caught a couple dance lessons and an episode of season 1 Heroes.

We’ve been having a serious drought in the Washington DC area the entire calendar year of 2007.

More than a month ago there were reports of wells going dry in Purcelville and Waterford.

Maryland and Virginia agriculture has been seriously impacted, everyone except the vineyard owners has seriously reduced crop yields. Governor Kaine called for a state of emergency to get help for struggling farmers.

Loudon County’s “voluntary” water use restrictions have become mandatory now, see my friend Mindflayer’s post with details on the rules and up to $500 fines for violators:
http://www.mindflayer.net/2007/10/04/mandatory-water-restrictions-in-effect-in-eastern-loudoun/

Announced on NewsChannel 8 this morning, no more open fires in Loudon County.
Fairfax City imposes water restrictions.
Prince William and Fairfax counties are both on voluntary water conservation now.

I suspect we’ll start a fire-watch on the mountain if we don’t see rain soon.

Fires, lack of local produce, problems carrying away waste/sanitation… yikes.

Craig says it much better than I do, and I totally agree. Sharon Pandak deserves our votes in Prince William County because she is honest and has integrity. Corey Stewart is the wrong Corey to serve on the board, because that honor should go to Corey Riley (running for Gainesville District Supervisor against incumbent John Stirrup).

Corey Stewart is ruthlessly using any and every tactic to stay in office, but not actually doing anything meaningful. The anti-immigration rhetoric is unfunded, and destined to fail because he really does not want to do anything about the issue - he just wants to sound like he is to stir voters into supporting him at the polls. Likewise he has done nothing to abate rapid and ill-considered growth in the county since he was elected. He simply abuses that very real issue to mislead voters into supporting him while he takes money from developers to campaign some more. For him, this is about his ego. We have to live here though, and we need someone who has integrity. That chairman is Sharon Pandak. She’s a lawyer, she’s technical, she’s frank, she’s honest. You may not like the grim reality she shares, but she gives it to us straight. No misleading double talk, no campaign tactics out of the Karl Rove playbook.

Likewise John Stirrup has done very little of use while he’s been in office as Gainesville District Supervisor, like Stewart he has pushed these hot-button issues that he really cannot control from the office of supervisor, and the issue he can do something about (growth without a plan) has only received token vocal resistance from Supervisor Stirrup. Meanwhile growth continues unchecked and the rural crescent is threatened. It is time we got an honest, fresh, enthusiastic champion in Gainesville District, and Corey Riley is the man to do it.

Sadly very few voters know there is an election this year, and very few of those who do know we have a contested race for Gainesville District Supervisor. You owe it to yourselves to do the research and be an educated voter. If you have not voted before - get registered by Tuesday, October 9th in order to vote in this November’s election.