Because sometimes change is a good thing:
BIG LINK

I went and started a new page.
Just because.
Besides, been thinkin about it for a while anyway.

Soon, this old page will disappear.

'Cause There's Always Next Year...

and we'll be back!

Official Gloat Post

Sorry Cheeseheads.

That Which Doesn't Kill Me...

Seems kinda strange that I go into surgery and then it takes weeks/months to start feeling 'right' again, and I know I haven't been much of myself of late.
I've seen others have all kinds of nasties removed, and short of chemo, within a few weeks are no worse for wear.
I brought this up with the doc. He explained a few things as to just why this wasn't a 'normal' thing I went through. Oh,well....

Finally, I'm starting to feel as if I might be turning a corner soon, but so much is still broken I wonder if I'll ever get back to normal.
Let me list a few:

The lower right quadrant of my face is still numb. Doc says it will stay that way for a while. (Ever tried to shave a thick beard when you have no feeling beneath it? Needless to say,I no longer bother.)

My tongue is off center. Seriously. Thick on one side. Only about half the dexterity it used to have. Much of my oral musculature has been damaged and remains paralyzed, but my speaking becomes a bit more clearer by the day. It's a slow go, but still a go. I'll take it.

As my mouth regains some of it's dexterity, I don't drool as much.

The feeding tube has been removed from my nose, and replaced with a different one in my abdomen instead. This means I can leave the house with out being stared at. It also eases overall physical mobility. The downside: having to be anesthetized for this procedure last week means the breathing tube tweaked out my throat again, setting my voice back about two weeks. (Damn!)

The voice has gone from soft and raspy, to medium and raspy, but with better enunciation. Still can't be heard from across the room. I can be heard across the dinner table if everybody else shuts up first, but I tend to avoid dinner tables for obvious reasons.

One eye droops a little.

Like I explained before, my throat is paralyzed. This means that life for me consists of hocking and spitting, about every few minutes or so. Also, chronic halitosis. After brushing and mouthwash, I'm good for about one hour, before I need to hit the mouthwash bottle again. Gross,huh?

Dry spots that occur in my throat cannot be remedied by simply swallowing, and generally result in a violent,uncontrollable coughing fit (that sometimes will empty the contents of my gut, as well.) For this reason, I avoid getting behind the wheel of the car. (My car still has 1/2 tank full of $4 gas.)

On the plus side:

The gnarly, layers-deep abrasion/sore below my left shoulder (a result of surgery) has finally gone bye-bye, and no longer hurts.

I am free of any and all nicotine cravings. I think I was just generally too fucked up to recognize any withdrawal symptoms for it to be much of a struggle,anyway.

That tumor will never threaten me again.

I was 5'9" and weighed 170 when I left high school back in 1982. The morning of surgery I was at 208. I'm down to 182 now.

No more dizzy spells while climbing the stairs.

Doctor says it looks like,just maybe, if things continue to go well ('well' for whom,I wonder), I may get my swallowing back in 3-6 months.
3-6 months!!! Not sure if I categorize this as good news or bad news.

Global Warming Update

This is the view from my front porch two days ago. According to reports, we were hit by a "50 yr Arctic Front", not to mention 24hrs of uninterrupted rain fall.

Remember: I'm not up north, nor in higher elevations. Just fifty miles from my former home in Anaheim, in the county of Riverside. (KD: Take note. Not in Anaheim. I bought a house,remember?).

Kinda cool since we never see stuff like this around here.

Tully here,

As you have no doubt noticed, Tully is no replacement for Gino. As I suspect Gino is now competent to carry out his blogging duties in full, I will now hang up my saddle and ride off into the sunset (without a saddle?). It's been interesting. I now return to the hoi polloi as a mere commenter- See you in the threads!

Inconsiderate Bastard!

What did the Iraqi journalist wear home after he threw his shoes at the president? I'm sure he didn't get his shoes back. Did the Secret Service give him a new pair of shoes? Did they lend him a pair of shoes? Did he even have another pair of shoes at home, or is he now utterly shoeless. Perhaps amid all the publicity, he still goes barefoot around Sadr City, like Socrates walked barefoot in Athens, being known as the gadfly of Iraq. How does his wife feel about the whole thing- she probably picked out those shoes for him, "Honey, this is a big day for you, being an unknown journalist, to see the imperialist pig George Bush at a press conference- why don't you wear your best shoes today? I'm sure the press corp will be impressed!"

She's probably regretting it now...Living on a journalist's salary, having to find a Payless in Sadr City all because her hubby had big ideas about standing up to the Man. "I'll bet he didn't even consider what I go through every day to keep things running smoothly in this house when he was out making a name for himself. Well, Mr. Big Name Journalist had better be bringing more hummus home soon, what with my mother no longer seeing fit to enter our house because her Imam thinks it's shameful for a Muslim to treat a guest with disrespect. Well, one thing's for sure, when everyone's forgotten about how great his resistance to occupation was, I'll still have a little resistance left over when he gets any ideas about occupation in the sack- so let's see him throw his shoes at that problem!"

Are questions annoying?

Tully here,

I often hear about "faith voters" and policies favoring "faith," people making decisions by "faith" rather than reason, or without having to have certainty. But then they say they have faith in God, by which they often mean that they have more certainty in God than in anything else. Others say that they don't need certainty because they have faith instead.

So is faith a sort of certainty, or is it the opposite of certainty?
Or is it a synthesis of the two, or neither of the two?
Or are all of these the case?

Is it a vague beginning, or a lucid end? Is it the journey from one to the other, or the cessation of a journey?

WTF?

Luke Skywalker light saber auctioned for $240,000

I assume nobody told him it wasn't real.

Free Blago

My,my,my...ain't the blogosphere a buzz with Rod Blagojevich. Much a do 'bout nothing really.

Senate seats have been bought and sold in this nation for as long as I can remember, and probably longer than that. And what senator, past or present, hasn't benefited financially, or hoped to, from their position?

The way I see it, any senator, past or present, who utters one ill word toward the Illinois Governor should be taken out and shot as the hypocrite motherfucker they are.

Illegal Loggers Caught In Poland

Green campaigners called in police after discovering an illegal logging site in a nature reserve-

...and rounded up a gang of beavers. Environmentalists found 20 neatly stacked tree trunks and others marked for felling with notches at the beauty-spot at Subkowy in northern Poland. But police followed a trail left where one tree had been dragged away - and found a beaver dam right in the middle of the river. A police spokesman said: "The campaigners are feeling pretty stupid. There's nothing more natural than a beaver."

True.

Tully here,

I recall during the last campaign that there were eyebrows raised over Obama having met with Bill Ayers. As a matter of fact, my own dad tried to use it as a reason for me to side with McCain rather than siding with no one.

Is our country a better place when we question the views of our politicians on the basis of whom they communicate with?

Should a president talk to a terrorist? Not necessarily negotiate, but rather listen to what the terrorist has to say? Is this possible, or is the very act of talking to a terrorist an encouragement for Joe the Landscaper to blow up a building (with fertilizer) to get a chance to talk to the president? Or is the problem that the large, centralized nature of our nation and government will not allow a peaceful means of individuals to communicate with their President? Is it good for a citizen not to be able to communicate with his ruler? We usually approach this matter by upholding that government must remain large and people must learn to deal with it- but should we rather mold the government according to the needs of its citizens?

The World Has Gotten Just A Little Bit Better

After shutting down the ovens a couple of months ago Mother's Cookies will soon return.

Now This Is Fearless

Seems more than a few of you doing it, so I may as well make my own football prediction as well.

First off, I'm giving the Bears a victory over the Jaguars. Not an easy one,mind you. Just a victory. This is just my wishful thinking at work. That, and we need the W to help put the Vikings back in their rightful place. Only two teams are allowed to win this division, and the Vikings aren't one of them.

Second, and I know I'm going out on a limb here: Lions over the Vikings in a squeaker. The Lions have shown that they can play, compete and put points on the board despite their 0-12 record. That, and since only one team has ever pulled off a perfectly not-perfect season, the odds are that the Lions will win one this year. This will be the one because it could also be the most damaging to the loser. Fate sometimes works that way.

Go ahead and laugh.
Anybody can predict the easy ones. And if I'm wrong, I will just admit the being the sports moron I've always claimed myself to be.
But if I'm right, I'm a frickin genius and my predictor status will skyrocket, which is more than what will happen if the rest of you are right instead,ain't it?

Christmas Traditions

I wrote about this guy two years ago, and demonstrating how the more things change, the more they stay the same, he's back and better than ever.

Don't pass up this chance.Get yours right here.

Tully here

One of the differences you should know about me compared with other bloggers, is that I prefer to post questions infrequently than to post answers frequently. Call it laziness or intellectual honesty, as you wish.

As a result, the main of activity while I am blogging is not in posting, but in the comment threads, so I must encourage you to keep that activity coming. If you can't answer the questions, perhaps you can make the questions more precise, and thus help me with my task. Or, add an anecdote or quip even remotely relevant to the post, so that it's at least more entertaining. Basically- I'm not picky when it comes to discourse.

Thanks

Reason Reasoning Itself

by tully

It seems that most guys I meet get at least some of their personal philosophy from the Godfather. I'm sure that Gino, guinea that he is, is no exception. Now, the Godfather is a movie that, philosophically, holds reason to be the best way to handle business, and business to be the best approach to life that we can take. Such quotes as Michael saying of Sonny Corleone, "But his temper--too much--clouded his reason," gives the trilogy's protagonist the banner of reason to wave. Hyman Roth, giving him advice in Part II, reminds Michael of the importance of business even when it contradicts humanity, "this is the business we've chosen - I didn't ask who gave the order - because it had nothing to do with business!" The most popular line of the whole trilogy, "I'll make him an offer he can't refuse," speaks in terms of rational, business-like efficiency.

But what is the outcome of Michael's commitment to reason? With it, he thrives in his business, but, confessing to a Cardinal, finds himself in moral shambles. His primary objective by Part III is to use reason and business to keep the ruination wreaked by reason in check- to get out despite the fact that they keep pulling him back in. Rather than controlling his life with reason, reason is now in full control of his life. Concerned with his heirs, he finds that the son of his radically rational approach, Anthony, has become a singer, who is totally indifferent to the family business. His daughter is in love with his nephew, and they deny the rational option in his ultimatum, thus both of them are more romantic than rational. Said nephew, Vincent Mancini, resembles Sonny in that his temper clouds his reason. Thus, Michael, the pinnacle of rationality, has given birth to the irrational: the gentle irrationality of an artist, the passionate irrationality of his daughter, and the harsh irrationality of a mafioso, the latter of which becomes dominant. His attempts to legitimize his business fail, his daughter is killed, and Vincent Mancini takes over the family business upon Michael's death. In short, rationality has brought about irrational ruin and destruction, despite the attempts of reason to keep itself in check.

Why is this?

Was his reason just too weak to begin with?

Or was reason too effective in solidifying his circumstances such that reason could not negate its own work?

Or, is reason by its nature incapable of moderating itself, but is rather bound to moderate circumstances alone? Can reason transcend the subject-object framework of domination which is its own doing?

Or is there some other reason for Michael's failure? These are not rhetorical questions! I want answers!

Society is in the same predicament as Michael. The obsession with rational order and domination of circumstances has given us the Holocaust, the Atom Bomb and countless other irrational instances of war and destruction, all of which are implemented rationally. It seems the only hope is for reason itself to reverse its own excess. We must learn from Michael Corleone's mistakes, or we are doomed, in our own way, to repeat them!

With A Little Help From My Friends

This recovery thing is going slowly, and I still can't seem to muster up the strength or ambition to get to doing any posting on a regular basis.
I'm not saying I've run out of things to say. I haven't.
My mind is finally working again. I actually have a few thoughts now as opposed to a string of unrelated reactions. I guess that's a good thing,eh?

Anyway, back to...
I've invited a long time blogger buddy to join me here to help keep the place interesting. And, pity the fool, he accepted. Most of you already know Tully well enough from his own now-deleted blog. The rest will remember him as a regular commenter on this page. As it is, he needs no introduction, but I'll try anyway:

Formerly known as 'Little Cicero', Tully is a student at one of those Jesuit schools out there in the lakes region. It also means that whatever the hell it is he's learning, it is not Catholicism.
He's not very long in the tooth, but sometimes he can fool you into thinking he's at least into his fourth decade.
He's a full Sicilian, the son of immgrants. That just goes to show you that despite what many may think, I am not a racist, and will welcome (almost) anybody into my home if they can behave half-way decently.
He's also compassionate. He demonstrates this by rooting for the Cleveland Indians.

Give him a welcome. But you don't have to be too nice.