Good one today. I got some work done, cleaned the hot tub (which had developed some funk), and rode my bike to Trinidad to get groceries. Then I watched Nova and ate mac'n'cheese.

Atrios, Brad and The Editors (a brutal triumverate of snark) have been having some sort of Awful Video Showdown for the past 24 hours. Shlock abounds, but here's an amazing gem:

That's right. Colin Motherfucking Powel performing YMCA. See, this is what you can do when you piss away all your credibility.

If I were a scientologist, I'd say I was clear. For the first time in a while, I had a good run of being truly present.

I sort of realized that everything was gonna to be allright, even though everything is also totally fucked up, and I felt as if a weight lifted from my shoulders. And then I cleaned up around the house and waited for some guests to arrive and then rode my bike along Scenic drive to Trinidad for a few groceries (whiskey, coffee filters, bannanas) and it was beautiful.

Presence is perfection.

I love this pic from Pa and Patti's site:

Those are Kaiser and Joe, the big fluffy cats that got transplanted from Eugene to the Farm. Consider this my "friday cat blogging."

And in other family news, my mother is getting a cellphone. This is truly the 7th sign. The days of the Red Dawn are surely upon us.

It's been a busy yet pretty much unremarkable week here in the State of Jefferson. We had visitors down over the weekend, and the past two days I've been working on finishing old projects/making up for missed time.

I like it here. It's slow, but I like it so far. I need to do a better job of structuring my schedule. All the hurlyburly of the past month (left NYC, spent a week in Vegas at the Yearly Kos convention, flew to SF for two days, then up here for two, then to Oregon for four, then back here to recieve holiday visitors) has made it difficult to organize.

I've been reaching back into my old bag of slogans over the past weeks, revisiting my old philsophies. My introspection comes in the night, usually taking advantage of the hot tub or getting a little light quasi-yogic stretching done. I'm a big bath-taker, so the tub is a great luxury, and one I heartily embrace.

When I find myself retraicing my steps mentally, I make a note of it. When you cover the same ground, you're probably on to something. It may be time to make a decision, or set a goal, or admit something. 'Tis all one.

So what have we learned? Well, I'm nervous. I worry about wasting my summer. I'm skittish about opening myself up. I don't know if I'm any good. I worry about the next phase in life. I worry about the worry. Wheels within wheels.

One of my better hoary old chestnuts goes Believe in the Divinity of your Forward Momentum. I'm having a hard time doing that lately; the nervousness. My forward momentum is at the moment a bit murky and strange. I don't doubt my potential or ability to make it in the world for one second, but I do wonder what the fuck to do with myself.

I like things that drive me forward. I liked my fixed-gear bike. I liked New York City for this reason. I need to be pushed, but I'm pretty picky about where I'll take it from. I think part of the test of these months is whether or not I have it within myself to be my own motivation.

I've had some concerns that as increasingly sophisticated means of media production (video) become more widely available, we'll see a serious decline in the quality of discourse. It's a truism that a lot of the internet video out there is total crap, and even though the totality of written content (aka the "blogosphere") is hardly of sterling quality, there's a lot of really good writing going on. It would be a shame if this were overshadowed by the advent of flickering idiocy.

Well, I'm thinking this might not be such a problem. Video has a great way of setting the credibility bar.

That's a link to a woman named Pamela who's been one of the new blogging stars on the Right. There's video. As you can see, she's kind of "out there." It actually makes me uncomfortable to watch. The idea that a lot of people go around with this kind of inner monologue puts my guts in a knot.

On the other hand, whoever's backing Michelle Malkin's play has higher production values. This kind of Propaganda will be more effective, I think. This is the sort of thing that the right wing movement needs to feed its people to keep them psyched up and motivated. The results of this kind of information diet are not so pretty.

While Google Video and YouTube are casting the widest net for video content online (and MySpace and others are gunning for a more personal view on things), I think the real services to watch are the ones with fucking revenue sharing. Three I noticed today: eefoof.com, lulu.tv and revver.com.

These are where the action is at: if these business models mature, we should hit a tipping point at which it becomes economically viable for small and efficient home/hobby producers to make the leap into some stage of "professional" production, funded by the revenues from their viewers.

This is what the entertainment industry most fears: a population that can amuse itself.

It's a holiday weekend, and I been doing the American thing, clearing some brush. I can report this to be one more point you can count me in solidarity with the President on. He and I share few enough points in common, and I feel it's important to recognize these. Clearing brush is good hard work, and it's fun.

And here are a couple other photos of me in front of the blackboard I hung in my room. I think this may figure into future video art.

And Nick and his woman and Luke have just arrived. Gotta go now.

(UPDATED below) I'm ignorant on a lot of things Israeli/Palestinean, but I was reading about this poor kidnapped kid and trying to figure out what the heck is going on. The reports are kind of confusing, and I wonder if not missing some critical subtext.

So, Gilad Shalit is serving his stint in the IDF, and his checkpoint was attacked by Palestineans. No article seems to mention which specific groups were involved, but apparently in response the IDF has arrested a number of ministers in the Palestinean government, presumably most or all of them Hamas. Now, Hamas has been involved in all sorts of ugly violence over the years, but no one seems to be claiming that they're holding onto the kid.

Is this just how business gets done these days in the Middle East? One would think that with the proximity and history between the Israelis and Palestineans the IDF would be able to decyper the situation and target people who are more directly responsible. I mean, this seems almost as dense as our handling of sectarian issues in Iraq, but at least we're half a world away (although that's still no excuse).

Anyway, it seems like I'm missing something. Anyone care to put a lightbulb over my head?

UPDATE: I see now that the kidnappers are identified as "identified with Hamas" and that also "Hamas may be willing to release the solder," so clearly they're in control. Still, seems odd. Like, was this a freelance kidnapping, or was it planned? Did the abductors think they'd get a promotion for showing initiative, or were they acting on orders? Murky.

Got a bike! Surly cross-check, black, 60cm. Oh baby.

I got the call from the shop after finishing a return to the Gym, and I don't have the arm control to really give it a whirl, but tomorrow is another day.