Really nice night for Deb and I doing LitQuake up in San Francisco with the SF in SF folks. Never enough time to talk, though, which means not getting to hang enough with old friends or get to know new ones.

Speaking of amphibians (like my profile pic) I just met a salamander on the back porch. I asked him what he was doing out in the rain. He looked at me like I was stupid. I guess amphibians don’t understand irony.

Been reading Conrad Aiken tonight. Love this.

“Morning Song of Senlin” by Conrad Aiken

I’m exhausted after a long day of Left Coast partisanship, NLDS, VP debate, but I can’t relax because the As are still playing and (at the moment) they’re trailing. Breathe. Keep breathing.

Radiohead – exit music

I’ve been holding my breath for days since the Giants lost the first game of the playoffs. I finally let it out. Whew. Amazing comeback.

I’ve had a fun last forty-eight hours. A couple of hours before the Sherman/skunk crossover late last night, our son accidentally left the water running in a clogged bathroom sink — three inches of water on the floor, which ran out onto our bedroom carpet when he opened the door and is probably rotting the roof above my head as I type. Lots of clean-up. After dealing with those two charming emergencies last night, I figured I already smelled disgusting, so I cleaned the turtle tank and filter completely this afternoon, an hour and a half kneeling in puddled reptilian filth, scrubbing. Whee! I can’t wait to see I get to do next. Maybe I’ll be really lucky and get struck by lightning or something.

So much for Mitt’s “bounce”. This week the conservative blogs are accusing Obama of doing crack and having gay sex — even being secretly “gay married”. Does that sound like a confident Republican base to you?

Sherman the beagle had an exciting night last night, and shared it with us, his loving family. He braced a skunk who was loitering suspiciously, and brought back to all of us the skunk’s somewhat testy self-defense. Twelve hours later, despite rain, we still have all the windows open and the fans blowing continuously. Sherman has been special-shampooed several times — don’t bother sending home remedies, thanks, we got this. It’s down to the level now where it’s just…unpleasant. Hurray.

I’m throwing this down for all my homeys from the mean streets near the Coffee House Initiative and the My-O-My, especially Andy and Rick. This should have been our first video.

Salvador singing cat

Maymo, you’re very fine to look at, but I’m afraid you are a bad dog.

The Ultimate Dog Shaming

Just a reminder…

Had a nostalgic twinge to hear this song, thought I might as well share. This is like google map pin saying “you are here” in the center of my early, less fun teenage years.

Paul & Linda McCartney “Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey

I’m here but working. I mean, not here, but…well, yes, here, I guess. ‘Cause look at me, I’m here. But I’m sort of not here in general. Just a spate of work. So I’m here instead of here.

And none of you stand so tall, pink moon’s gonna get you all…

Recovering (nicely, thank you) from a long day yesterday, including a trip out with my lovely wife to see the current incarnation of New Order play in Oakland, which was great, but I find myself lacking in get-to-work zest today.

I didn’t watch the debate. I’ll have nothing interesting to offer, and I’m more interested in observing how everyone spins it, anyway.

I apologize for so much political stuff this time of the year. I get lots of posts in my feed from my more conservative friends and readers, and sometimes I feel compelled to express some of my own ideas. For those of you with a more constrained friends list, you may wonder why I’m just spouting off all the time. Honestly, I’m perfectly happy to talk about other things. Go on, try me.

A brief baseball note, for Giants followers: Who’d a thunk Barry Zito would have been our second best starter going into the playoffs?

They (Republicans, mostly) say that a conservative is a liberal who’s been mugged. I’ve heard this offered as a justification for all the new 9/11 conservatives who switched sides after the attacks on American soil. I say that any liberal who changes his political beliefs just because he’s finally figured out that the world is a dangerous place (and that geopolitical actions have far-reaching consequences) probably wasn’t the kind of “liberal” we wanted on our side anyway. So there.

I AM a moderate. My views have remained virtually unchanged since I cast my first vote (a write-in for Eugene McCarthy that I still think might have been miscast) in 1976. I believe in capitalism, the free market, free expression, and the creativity of the individual. But I also believe that we owe a social duty to put a bottom on how far anyone can fall in our society, and that the goverment has no business interfering in people’s private lives. But what was a fairly middle-of-the road political position in 1976 is now a far-left position because of where the Republicans have gone since then, which is steadily to the right, despite copious examples that it doesn’t work, either fiscally or socially.

The idea that Obama is some kind of far-left socialist is just ridiculous by any definition of the word. And I agree very strongly with anyone, most definitely including conservatives, that we have traded too many rights for security. But THAT’S been going on ever since the military industrial complex found out it was profitable to keep us at war 24/7, first with “communism”, now with “terrorism”.

My status is “tired”. And “whoobsy”. Is that a word? Now it is. Definitely whoobsy as hell.

Another audio-only. I’m sloping off to the contemplative part of my night for a couple of hours. Wonderful version of a great old song. Massive Attack, as always, just kills.

Massive Attack – Be Thankful For What you Got – Blue Lines – 1991

Audio only — one of my faves, a brilliant song about quarreling. “Mardy” means bad-tempered.

Arctic Monkeys – Mardy Bum

It often seems, especially in an election year, as if nobody thinks they could learn anything from anyone with a different political viewpoint. That’s sad, and it’s also not very smart, both from a political point of view and an evolutionary one as well.

Writing a story about the end of the universe is hard. Damn you, Science. I miss Ragnarok.

Wise words for trying times.