Lobo's blog

Hola,

I've got a new email address and key too ... Viva privacia?

[1/5 Snake edit: With Lobo's permission, I've moved his PGP key to my key page, where it's smaller and easier to copy-paste. If you need his key and/or his new email address, that's the place to find 'em both. Thanks!]

[5/08 Snake edit: Lobo is currently unable to use PGP. When that situation changes it will be reflected on his profile page.]

It's cloudy, gray and cold, but so Sunni today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Every news report sends the death toll in SE Asia higher. What will the final tally be? How many children will have died? Pregnant women? Newlyweds? Business peopple who had just had great new ideas? Artists just about to complete great masterpieces?

It's unbearable to think about too much, to let all that suffering in and let it be real ...

If the Christian God were real, how could He do such a thing on Christmas Day? If He created us in His image, maybe that would explain why people can be so murderous.

And ... if this "Act of Nature" is unbearable, how much more so was the crime of dropping atomic bombs on the civilians of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

All the dead in SE Asia ... at least they were not murdered by people ...

L

Sir Isaac Newton's birthday is tomorrow, December 25th. I don't avoid Christmas because I am not a Christian. As many of you know, I find much value in the Life & teachings of the famous carpenter, but not much in most of the subsequent nonsense done in his name. I just don't care much for the churchy rituals now associated with his birth, nor for the false cheer so many unhappy people display at this time of year. Love, friendship, family -- those are fine things to celebrate, though. And the Santa stories are fun (I've simply never told my children that such stories are true). It pleases me to focus my celebration around the coming of the new year; it's forward-looking, rather than backward-yearning.

Why not celebrate love, friendship and family all the time? I do, as much as I can. But to do so with more friends and family, it's useful to have holidays on which larger numbers of them can be expected to stop working and gather together. Unfortunately, I won't see my extended family this year, but I'm happy for the extra time off to play with my cubs, all five of whom are with me now.

AAAAOOOOoooooOOOOOooooooooo!!!!!!!!!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go phbbbbbbbt on some round warm tummies.

L

Yay!!! Love those!

Hope Sunni is seeing Sunni Beams like these. Dunno why, but I seem to see them everywhere I look these days ...

L

Okay, we're not in Seattle, and, well, there are two ball pythons about 7 ft. from where I'm sitting ... and it's shaping up to be a sunny day with a cloudless sky ... but I don't feel very Sunni.

She claims she doesn't need the time off/away, but I suspect she does, and do not begrudge it to her in the least.

I just miss her already.

Wherever you are this morning, Sunni, I LOVE YOU!!!

[[[[[[ >}~ ]]]]]] !!!!!!!!

L

Seems like there have been times in my life when I achieved some balance between work and the necessities of existence, on the one paw, and the time it takes to nurture a family and friendships, on the other. It also seems like it has been a long time since it has been that way ... not since I left Wyoming.

My new work is not as all-consuming as my fundraising work (when you're raising money for a non-profit doing valuable work with insufficient funds, there's no end to the number of places you could look), but is full of regular deadlines that pretty much fill my work week. What little time is left gets lapped up by the snolfs pretty quick ... most of my friends must think I've turned to dust and blown away in the autumn winds.

It's not very romantic, but friendship does take time -- were I to start new dialogs with all my friends online, I could easily spend more time on those conversations than I do at work. I'm reminded of that Kinks song, where the singer laments: "Love takes time, and time is money, and money is scarce." The heart rebels. Love should conquer all, or so our fairy tales teach us. But it doesn't. Poverty conquers love 99 times out of 100, or maybe that's an overly optimistic ratio. (Billy Joel floats up in my mind: "They started to fight, when the money got tight ...") So, for love's sake, as well as many other important values, you gotta do what you gotta do to pay the rent and keep food on the table. This year, I am not going to make it back east to visit with the folks over the holidays. Sigh ...

But I am working on reducing the pecuniary demands on my time, over time. If my friends will bear with me, I should be able to emerge from my work/family shell in less than a year, and be a more visible participant in my friendships once again.

I'm not unhappy, friends, just a little wistful that I can't fit 30/10 into 24/7.

Wolfy hugs to you all.

Hola Amigos,

My apologies to all who've wondered what the hell happened to the old wolf lately. I went back into the for-profit world, after the Eris conference this summer, and have had precious little time for aught else besides work and my family.

It's like Dan Akroyd's character tells Bill Murray's in Ghostbusters: "You don't know what it's like in the private sector -- they expect results!"

Actually, I did know that, and expected it, and so have done well. But it still leaves almost no time for saving the world, writing stories, etc. In part, that's because I've been on a steep learning curve, which I believe I am approaching the top of, so I hope I'll start appearing in more in-boxes soon ... And when I get back to saving the world again, I expect to have more resources at my command. (Heh, heh, heh ...)

Anyway, Life is good. Full of changes, not all easy, but good.

Hugs for all my friends -- and my usual reminder:

Do Freedom!