Sunni's blog

Literally.

Precisely one week ago, Anders Monsen published his top 50 libertarian fiction list, and included the rules he chose. I particularly like his restriction of only one choice per author; not only does it help spread the love around, as it were, but it encourages the listmaker to reflect on the various volumes of, for example, Robert Heinlein and to attempt to articulate the ineffable: Which one do I really like best, and is good at promoting liberty?

I don’t know where I came across the article originally, but I bookmarked it to return to and read through at my leisure, because the title and bit I skimmed were so intriguing. I’m so glad I did.

Not just food treats, either. It’s proving to be more of a challenge than I anticipated.

The local food movement has been big out here long before it really became a thing—which shouldn’t be surprising, since this region has a lot of agriculture and a fairly long growing season (and a lot of hippie types of all ages). Newly ensconced in one of the oldest sections of town one year ago this month, we were very happy to see that several homeowners nearby had converted their boring lawns into prime gardening spaces. A few have really invested in their urban gardening, constructing attractive raised beds and filling the area around them with warmth-hoarding rock.

... please be assured: no one is completely devoid of value.

4 Copy Editors Killed in Ongoing AP Style, Chicago Manual Gang Violence.

And I have a mission for 2013.

I don’t recall if I’ve mentioned it here previously, but two years ago the snolfs and I started celebrating the winter solstice. Since I’m not a Christian, it seemed silly to celebrate Christmas, and to me personally New Year’s Eve is nothing special, since it’s simply a marker of time on one of many arbitrary calendars. I turned to my Scandinavian heritage and—not surprisingly at all—discovered that the winter solstice was a very important occasion for my ancestors. That made the decision to celebrate it very easy; but it hasn’t been until this year that we’ve been fully free to create our own celebration.

I somehow missed the terrible news out of Connecticut until just a bit ago. I’m sure my thoughts and feelings in response are far from unique... it never ceases to amaze me that individuals can feel such loathing or despair that such acts seem like a reasonable course of action.

As an alternative to thinking along those lines, I hereby offer a link and a strong suggestion to have some tissues handy: 26 Moments That Restored Our Faith in Humanity This Year.

Peace and love to you all.

I have been deep in home-improvement projects of late—mostly painting the interior, although there’s plenty of outdoor work that needs attention as well. The very short days make that difficult to get to, however; by the time I’m done with work, the sun is low enough in the sky that I’d barely get started before it faded enough to make it time to stop.

The big project—and topic of discussion for the three of us—has been how to celebrate the solstice this year. We’ve celebrated it the past couple of years, but this is our first opportunity to go all out. I suggested a Scandinavian pagan theme for the festivities, which was warmly received, so we all have been exploring ideas. It’s been a lot of fun, learning about ancient customs and thinking about which ones to use.

There is another holiday tradition that I sort of fell into; and I would be greatly remiss if I were not to continue it this year.

It’s starting to appear so to me, and that’s rather worrisome.

Because I can’t seem to stay with a substantive topic long enough for it to make it through editing...


YouTube linky

Yow. Another large block of time away from here—completely unintended, yet utterly unavoidable.

If one has paid any attention recently to the cost of real money in US FRNs, one knows it’s been vacillating a lot after a fairly substantial drop. I think we’re close to a bottom now and would like to highlight a good way to start accumulating it—or even better, adding to one’s position.