Inktrails from Alaska

Richardson for President

Money wins again and the country loses, big time.

Governor Richardson bows out of the race,because he doesn't have the  money to compete with the other three: Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Obama. And we all lose the best candidate in decades to run for the Presidency.

Not only that, but we probably lose the election to the Republicans.

Clinton and Obama are unelectable. Do you honestly think that a woman, or a Black man, could carry enough electoral votes to win? Think about it. It's absolute FOLLY to nominate either of these people. Not if you want to WIN and get the country out of the control of the wacko, far right, ignorant, greedy white men who call themselves Republicans.

If Hillary Clinton or Obama gets the nomination, the Republicans will dance in the streets. They can attack Hillary Clinton wholesale and go on for years doing that, just as they did with her husband. If Obama gets the nomination, they'll just about pee their pants. They won't have to do a thing, but they will probably hassle him endlessly about every little thing. Regardless, he won't win.

I wish that our country were enlightened enough to elect a Black man, to elect a woman. But it isn't, and I doubt it will ever be in my lifetime.

The presidential races are all about money now, not about being qualified. Not caring about your job. It's so typical that the best candidate is unable to keep going.

When Ralph Nader ran (another unelectable guy) the Republicans actually donated to his campaign to keep it going so that independents and Democrats would vote for him instead of a viable candidate.

Richardson was the only candidate who had the experience to do the job as President. Edwards is woefully inexperienced. I'll vote for whichever Democrat gets the nomination, but not because I believe in any of the other candidates. Only to keep the the dogs of war at bay.

This is a very, very sad day for America. Mark my words, unless Edwards comes up, we'll see another four years of Dark Ages and many more years of war.

Don't Create MRSA in YOUR HOUSE

A commercial for Neosporin nags, "Every cut, every time."

Nothing could be more wrong. Another commercial for Lysol shows creepy-looking cartoon "bacteria" all over every surface in the house. It looks horrible! I'm sure it does a wonderful job of getting people out to the store to buy something to kill all those germs! But should you do that? NO!

One of the reasons these resistant staph bacteria are being found more places is that chemical companies are push "antibacterial" soaps and cleaners. What happens is twofold:

1. You know how they say stuff like Lysol kills 99% of bacteria and viruses? Well, it probably doesn't kill that much, studies have show that it's less than that, but let's say they are right. That means the the 1% who aren't killed are the STRONGEST ones left. Those strong bacteria that are left multiply like crazy and now you have a new population of bacteria that are stronger than ever.

Then you clean with Lysol or whatever again, and again kill a whole bunch of them, but the STRONGEST (most resistant) SURVIVE. And repopulate the area again. You are never going to rid the world of bacteria. The world is always going to have bacteria. The more you clean with that stuff, the stronger it makes the bacteria. This has also happened with bugs and pesticides, by the way.

2. The chemical that is used to make the detergents and cleaners "antibacterial" is called triclosan and it actually CREATES antibiotic-resistant bacteria!

The best thing to do is use regular soap and water, and to keep your immune system strong!

Be sure to wash cuts right away. If a cut starts to be infected, run it under hot water as hot as you can stand without being burned, for as long as you can stand, and do that a couple times the first day. You'd be amazed how quickly your body will mobilize to destroy the infection! You can use hot packs as well. Microwaving a clean, damp washcloth is an easy way to make a hot pack. Of course be careful not to burn yourself.

You don't need antibiotics for every little cut. Use common sense and don't give in to the sales efforts of the chemical companies. If enough people keep buying that stuff, we will all regret it.

To read more:

http://sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=024FEAE8-E7F2-99DF-323D8E02C4E48BF6

http://www.physorg.com/news106418144.html

http://www.housekeepingchannel.com/a_504-A_Perspective_on_Antibacterials__Please_Dont_Routinely_Use_Pesticides

http://gaga.essortment.com/antibacterialcl_rluu.htm

More Snow!

It continues to come down.

(Be sure to click on the pictures to see them a good size.)

Ole the dog is getting a snootful of the stuff. He is absolutely delighted by it, and spends half of his time running around like a complete maniac, and the other half trying to EAT ALL THE SNOW. Yes, folks, my dog thinks that ice cubes are dog treats, and thus snow must be Cookies Covering The Whole World. He does like to lie down in it, but just gets so excited it isn't long before he's just tearing around the yard at top speed again.

Our snow is pretty dry, not snowman quality wet snow, so it's not easy to make snowballs. However I did my best and found out that not only would both dogs joyously pounce on a snowball, but Sofia would snap them out of the air. Viciously! She's good at it!

Sofia has done her Happy Snow Dog Dance twice so far this year, and I'm sure she'll do it again. She loves snow and takes the time to enjoy it.

It's Nanowrimo Time Again!

Yes folks, it is almost November, time again for too much caffeine, toting the laptop everywhere, (even into the bathroom,) chatting online and doing writing challenges for hours, 10,000 typos that go uncorrected (until NanoEdmo in March), staying up late or getting up early or both, wondering what the heck you ought to have your characters do next, and/or trying to figure out how you can make an ending to the whole 50,000 word saga.

National Novel Writing Month is this and so much more. Abbreviated as Nanowrimo, it's an international madness where people attempt to write, and support each other writing, a 50,000 word novel in the 30 days of November. Whether you make it or not isn't the point, really. It's the attempt that teaches you all sorts of things about your thought processes, planning abilities and stamina, among other things. Such as how well you type. We don't correct typos during Nanowrimo. That's for NanoEdmo (National Novel Editing Month) in March. So you can go as fast as you like and not worry about your messy sentences and things that run on too long and are grammatically rotten and not makeing any sense and sthing like that. If you know what I mean.

In Alaska we get together in person in Fairbanks, Anchorage and the Mat-Su Valley. There are some folks organizing in Ketchikan, too, and at least one person in Sitka looking for Wrimo buddies. We meet statewide online nightly, (and mornings and afternoons and whenever you want, there is often someone in the chat room we have designated for ourselves) for writing challenges that range from ten minutes to an hour. There is always someone to help you work out a sticky plot problem, whether in person or online. It's a great, fun, goofy thing to do, and when you win it (winning is what we call completing your novel) it's a great feeling!

If you want to get crazy with us, by all means drop by the Nanowrimo website and sign up. Then add Alaska as your region and read the forum to find out what we've been up to. You can drop me a line too, if you like. You'll be hearing from me anyway if you join because I'm the Municipal Liaison for Fairbanks. See you there!

Snow, Continued

Here I am having a lunch break between students, eating bagels at Lulu's Bread and Bagels (the only place with edible bagels in Fairbanks). It's snowing away outside. It started while I was inside a big building downtown teaching kids in the Bush via videoconference.

One to three inches are expected. Translate that to mean one inch of snow will accumulate in town, and three inches up at my house near the hills.

The dogs are going to be SO HAPPY!

I like it, too. Sure, everyone is either driving waaaaaaay too slowly, or waaaaay too fast.....except me, I'm perfect. But besides making things look really pretty, it makes it far easier to see that moose that suddenly uncloaks at the edge of the woods and dashes into the road. Gives us, and the moose, a fighting chance to avoid collision.

This is the first year that I've seen the snow arrive and stick from Day One. I like it this way. The sooner we get right into Winter, the better. The worst and scariest driving conditions occur when it snows and then warms up, melts the snow, freezes again, and turns the roads to ice. I sure hate that!

It's slick outside and foolish people have already gotten themselves into trouble. I will certainly drive the long, flatter way home that avoids a humongous hill. But this snow is making me want to take a little jaunt out on the snow machine!

Dogs In Snow I

No doubt there will be more installments of Dogs In Snow, with more snow coming later this year. (Click on the small pictures to see them full-size--they are much better that way.) For now what little snow we have Sofia pretty much ignores. She's done her Happy Happy Joy Joy Dog Snow Dance, but she'll do it again when there is more snow to play in. Ole, on the other hand, has never seen snow, and as a dog who loves to eat ice cubes, now thinks the whole world is covered in delicious "cookies."  FYI a "cookie" is anything yummy to eat, or that I am eating. Or that seems yummy. At any rate, he continually walks with his nose down, slurping up as much snow as he can get.

Of course working on the hole in the middle of the yard hasn't stopped yet. The ground isn't frozen enough for that. You can see how deep it is. Ole has his bottom on the ground and his front legs in the hole.

They've played so much that the backyard is mostly snirt. A nice, brownish, dry mixture of snow and dirt. Because of the snirt Ole has learned a new trick: catching treats in his mouth out of the air. He found out that if he lets the treats fall in the snirt they realllly don't taste so good!

By the time they get done playing Ole and Sofie both have wet faces, and sometimes their fur is all twisted up like a kewpie dolls up and down their backs. Here they have a hold of each other. Ole cheats by grabbing Sofia's collar, something that I make clear is not okay. Her collar has to be tight to keep her from slipping it, and if he twisted she could really get injured. Removing her collar outside is NOT an option, so he's going to have to learn. Maybe Sofia's collar is going to be sprayed with Bitter Apple, who knows?

I love Sofia's nose in this one, with a nice dollop of snow on it!

When Ole first got here he couldn't play longer than 10 minutes before he was pooped out. Now he NEVER gets pooped out, much to Sofia's joy!

Ole is shaping up to be a very good-looking guy!

Noble beast!

What was that? It was a magpie, a bird that is moving into Interior Alaska from the South. They aren't supposed to live up here, but due to global warming are moving on up. I hear that more of the Southern bears are moving north, too. Yikes.

It's Here

Tiny snow fell last night, and is still falling. Half an inch is expected by 4pm today.

SIGH.

I love the snow but I was hoping for a few more weeks of clear skies to give me a more of a chance to get stuff done outside. Oh well! Guess I'd better get out there and clean the poopy dog kennels and put fresh straw in the dog house!

I don't know if Ole has seen snow before or not. When I took the dogs out this morning he eagerly licked up as much snow as he could get off the front porch, but after that ignored it in favor of rough and tumble play with Sofie in the back yard. It will be interesting to see what he does with it when there is a substantial amount on the ground. Sofia loves it. She's a real snow dog. Genetically, so is Ole, but genetically he's supposed to track moose too, and have a high prey drive. Right. Sofia's taught him all he knows about prey and he eagerly spots rabbits, birds and squirrels now (she taught him to look UP into the trees--most dogs don't look up). But a moose, horse or yak (yes, I said yak, there's a yak farm out Chena Hot Springs Road) leaves him looking around and saying "What? What do you want me to look at?" Meanwhile any animal at all makes Sofia VERY pointy. She sees things way before humans and elkhounds do. Quite handy when driving around this place.

Sofia is so much on the lookout for animals that she has gotten all pointy over a certain homemade barbeque that a neighbor has. It has four legs and a skinny chimney pipe coming out of a metal barrel body, and it's black. She reads the shape as some kind of prey animal and every time I drove by it for weeks she'd get all excited and try to tell me there was an ANIMAL there!

So today is taking stuff to the storage space, doing laundry, cleaning out dog kennels, and coming home and making potato soup.

Sounds like a plan.

Weekend Thoughts: Laundry and Cults

I try not to spew a bunch of drivel and keep posts coherent and to the point.

This is not going to be one of those posts.

Let's see, I did the laundry the day I posted about it. Due to a trip Down South that turned out to be just about as expensive as I thought it would be, I didn't do laundry for two months. It is nice to know I have enough underwear for two months, but geez. I also figured out how many of those need to be thrown out, too. Yikes.

Two months of laundry equals one triple loader, three double loaders and a single machine. All in all it cost me about $30 to wash and dry.

Today I will go and finish the job, in that somehow I made it to the laundromat with only one pair of pants to wash. Having all four or five of my pants hanging over a chair in the bedroom so that I could pick the cleanest every day, I forgot to put them in the laundry basket. ::bangs head on wall::

In other matters....

I came by a free copy of a book called Escape from Utopia by William Olins, about his ten years in Synanon. If you are younger and never heard of Synanon, or don't remember it from back in the day, it was a cult that started out as a drug rehab place. A megalomaniac named Chuck Dederich started it in Southern California. The entire "program" revolved around "The Game," which was what I consider an extremely irresponsible type of peer counseling, where people could scream at each other and use any sort of language they felt like. Kind of a cross between Primal Screaming and peer counseling. The only rules were no violence and no threats of violence. I think being screamed at is violence, myself. It's certainly abuse.

Regardless, it was the kind of "tough love" that helped turn around some addicts. The problem was that if you left, you were scorned, and if you stayed, you were stuck with their wacky society and had to toe the line constantly. Live revolved around the latest "brainstorm" of their fearless leader, Dederich.

Synanon no longer exists in the US, though there are references to a Synanon "house" still functioning in Germany. Violence was done by Synanon members, as well as members of the public, and the whole thing collapsed due to IRS problems in 1989.

This has brought to mind for me the other cults that I have had experience with. I never knew anyone in Synanon, but the descriptions of The Game remind me somewhat of Re-Evaluation (Co-Counseling) Counseling though far less safe and far less thought out than RC. I was involved with RC for five or six years, but quit due to my natural non-cult inclinations. When I was being harangued by co-counselors for not being involved enough and not going to workshops enough, I told them that I didn't live to counsel, I counseled in order to live better. Eventually I just quit, deciding that I had gotten out of it everything I could and moved on.

There is an addiction to catharsis that I think happens with those kinds of counseling, both the Synanon Game and RC, and other types of counseling as well, even talk therapy as done by most mental health professionals. There is a point where you identify the garbage you are carrying around, you work through it to the point where you can stand off and look at it, and then you either learn to live with it or take it out!

What I saw happening in RC that I didn't like was the creation of false memories by poor counseling, and a lot of wallowing around in garbage best dealt with. When you wallow, you actually create more garbage. And so you have to go back and keep counseling, etc.

As a survivor of extreme child abuse I know that it never goes away. People who think counseling is going to make something go away are living in a dream, and I think this is one way they get hooked into cults. Nothing is going to make someone undead, unaddicted, or completely healed. We live with our scars and they make us who we are. Being healthy with scars is possible! It is when people want to have the scars erased that cults can get a foothold.

Way back when I learned TM when it only cost $75 to do so. I never went to any other meetings and was only "checked" twice. I meditate to this day and use more than the TM method, which is a simple mantra method, by the way, nothing fancy or magical. It has great benefit. Once again I simply ignored the organization when it got wacky, claiming it could teach people to "fly."

Later I took the EST (Eberhard Seminars Training) Training and thought, okay, interesting, but there was no need to make us uncomfortable by not having bathroom breaks. I had about three days of enthusiastic usage of EST jargon, but came to my senses quickly. Being a poor student had unexpected benefits. After the first training I was inundated by phone calls from the EST people exhorting me to take the next training, which of course cost a substantial amount of money. After two weeks of this I got sick of it, and got one of the EST phone people to admit that I didn't NEED THE TRAINING because I ALREADY "GOT IT." I'm so proud of myself! I don't know anyone else who can make this claim.

I seem to have some kind of anti-cult innoculation. I don't know where that comes from or if I was born with a naturally pragmatic nature. Whatever it is, I'm thankful for it, since time on Earth is limited and I am glad I haven't wasted a bunch of time letting someone else control my mind.

My experience is a lot like the experiences related by Synanon "splitees" (those who left Synanon). I got what I needed and moved on. RC helped me out trememdously, through my own efforts and the support of my co-counselors, and for that I am grateful. I'm glad it's there. But like anything else, you have to keep thinking, stay aware, and be honest with yourself.