Snow and rain this week, big snow and good rain in Southeastern New Mexico--water is so important to us here we are dancing for joy...this coming summer may not have the rabid drought conditions we fought so hard in the garden last summer....As I write this we are pretty well snowed in 12/24..and happy for it. I have a list of small inside jobs for this weekend...and the list includes many naps.

JoJo and I don't do Christmas---or any other commercial holiday hiding behind corporate religion. The buy-buy-buy holiday machine gets not a dime from us. Halloween and giving out candy to children is the only Corporate Festivus we do..and that's to enjoy the children getting the candy and for no other reason....I've given up on the concept of peace and goodwill to everyone one as a corporate motto to inspire Shopping Mall soldiers---because in our society it is just words, and words to us now have no meaning. We are snowed in, huddled up reading and computing and I have an extra day off---this is fine enough by us. Good Luck to the rest of you.

My most recent book orders are pictured--a post cyberpunk novel "Blueprints of the Afterlife" by Ryan Boudinot--and "The Wall, Rome's Greatest Frontier" By Alistair Moffat. I just ordered these and will have to advise on them in a later post. I am always on the search for any Cyberpunk or Post-Cyberpunk author/novel---this is the SF category which I am addicted to.....Blueprints for me is an ongoing hope for a new William Gibson----Roman Britain's war against the Outlanders, the Irish, the Picts, whatever they are called by whichever authority happens to be writing on them--is also one of my bizarre specialist interests...this interest has been heightened lately due to my tattoo design/application process...so the wall is a book that i am tremendously interested in reading. Time to huddle up on the couch with a dog or two and read an afternoon away--with the occasional doze of course.

What is there to say after the death of nearly 5,000, and who knows how many crippled and mentally destroyed young people...unknown thousands of Iraqi's dead....and the loss of our national fortune....the Bush--Cheney--Powell--Rice great lie war is finally over.

The audacity of the murder, lies and robbery the Bush Gang committed on the American public outranks anything that Goebbels could have dreamed of doing for the third reich. I was against this stupidity from it's onset--and suffered from the over-exuberant patriotism of those around me when it started...we have left a wasteland of stupidity behind us, as Iraq already begins to fall apart, just as any intelligent human recognized would happen...what of all the money spent there on infrastructure projects??? eh you bastards? There's no money for food banks in our country--is there?----what about Detroit? There's no money in infrastructure projects in Detroit for Cheney's Halliburton is there? The best thing that can be said about this is we are out of there, other than the thousands of State Department and contract workers left barricaded up against the nation outside, in the green zone---- the worst thing is that this will happen all over again in Afghanistan...

I just despise us for this war and despise the American people for having been so gullible to jump when having a flag waved at them by an ignorant texan and his gang.....you believed them and we paid for it and we will have learned nothing by suffering through it------

Mission Accomplished my Ass......I'm just thankful this is over.

As of this writing ( 12-24-11) my forearm tat has been healing for 14 days now---I've got to advise that this one is a bitch. It may be the different position on the body--more sensitive--the greater work involved since this tat is extensive--but my whole forearm is slightly red at this point but starting to feel semi-normal....I am taking into consideration the fact that I can see the healing process this time as compared to it being hidden from instant viewing the last time.....this is going to take a bit to recover from--I'm sure of it. I still have no regrets and am planning the next work to have done once this arm heals completely.

Art and everyday carry have an overlap---there are lots of on the move sketchers out there, displayed on FLICKR--but I found a rare combination displayed below. Six, small, sketch pencils an eraser, and a sketch pad all sized to fit within a CD case, for $5.00. This way I can have the ability to create with me anytime---I have been pushing myself to draw and sketch again--i have somehow lost my way in doing this on a routine basis.. I also can't wait to see how they worked this CD case sketch kit out....into the military shoulder bag it goes.

"For I can raise no money by vile means"

William Shakespeare